Mayor announces £4million plans to kick-start eco-innovation fund

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, today announced proposals for a multi-million pound 'London Green Fund' to boost London's low carbon economy, create jobs and tackle climate change.

The fund will unlock the financial savings that can come from going green by developing an innovative financing framework to 'pump-prime' energy efficiency measures to cut carbon across London and money off fuel bills. The resulting guaranteed savings will then pay off the upfront loans to be ploughed back into the green fund.

The fund may also be targeted at decentralised energy and new waste technology initiatives - areas that have experienced difficulties in fulfilling their potential and would benefit from the fund's pump priming function. The fund aims to leverage millions of pounds of private investment to enable the development of carbon-cutting infrastructure at the scale required to meet the Mayor's 60 per cent carbon reduction target by 2025.

The Mayor has committed to provide an initial £4million to develop and kick-start the fund with the intention of attracting co-investment from a range of bodies, such as the EU, philanthropic funds, climate charities and the private sector.

The fund is expected to be of particular interest to London's public sector organisations such as NHS Trusts, universities and borough councils that would like to retrofit their large building estates. The Mayor and the London Development Agency are currently developing a simple framework for organisations to replicate the energy efficiency programme that is currently taking place in 100 of the Greater London Authority group buildings. Retrofitting work started on Wembley Police Station last week to install energy saving measures such as solar panels, boiler upgrades and new cooling equipment.

The Mayor, Boris Johnson said:

"To tackle energy inefficiency and cut carbon, we need to make London's buildings and energy supply greener. We want to provide an easy way to tackle the maze of complex red tape that currently acts as a deterrent as well as provide the up front funds needed to take action. An innovative eco-fund will help London become energy efficient in a simplified way.

‘This will help to boost a low carbon economy in London, creating thousands of green collar jobs and fits with my overall goal to deliver genuine changes through high impact, value for money initiatives.'

Martin Powell, Director of Project Delivery at the London Development Agency, said:

'The Mayor has set an ambitious challenge to reduce the amount of carbon being emitted by London's buildings. The London Development Agency is developing a range of schemes to unlock the potential carbon savings available to organisations and business operating in the capital. It is hoped that this green fund will act as a catalyst for organisations to retrofit their building stock, saving on business costs and carbon emissions.'

The London Development Agency is currently developing this plan, which will be discussed in detail by its Board in September, with the aim of launching the fund by the end of current financial year. A key part of the development work would be to come up with a structure that is fully transparent, auditable, delivers value for money, and has a robust governance and investment framework to attract external investors.

The green fund plans are contained in 'Leading to a Greener London', published by the Mayor detailing his environment and climate change priorities for London. The Mayor wants improve Londoners' quality of life through an ambitious series of environmental improvements, tackling climate change, reducing pollution/improving air quality, consuming fewer resources and using resources more effectively which also exploit the new opportunities coming from developing a low carbon economy.

The pledges include:

• Making London greener, cleaner and more civilised - 1500 of 10,000 new street trees already planted; 11 parks being revamped with £6million fund; Capital Growth delivering 2012 new food growing plots by 2012; expanding the East London across London; boosting green roofs and green walls; planning protection for existing green spaces; working with the boroughs to tackle litter, chewing gum and graffiti; boosting volunteering
• Turning London's waste into a resource - plans to pilot projects to incentivise recycling such as RecycleBank; developing exemplar new technology plants to tackle waste to avoid landfill and incineration; working with the London Development Agency to catalyse development of waste infrastructure in east London as part of Olympic legacy
• Delivering a low carbon London - a new green enterprise district in east London; ten Low Carbon Zones to be announced in September; a homes energy efficiency programme to deliver no-hassle, zero up front cost retrofit measures to London's domestic housing; a 'retrofit academy' to train people to assess and fit energy efficiency measures; retrofitting London's public sector buildings; a Mayor's prize for low carbon technology from London's students;
• A greener transport system - 1,000 GLA group electric vehicles by 2015; 25,000 new charge points by 2015 to support 100,000 electric vehicles; a public cycle hire scheme; introduce LED traffic lights across capital; new bus for London to be hybrid.
  Many of these programmes are already delivering for London. The Mayor's detailed strategies on air quality, waste, climate change and energy, transport and water will be issued across this year.