The Mayor of London’s Energy Efficiency Fund (‘MEEF‘), managed by Amber Fund Management Limited, has received an additional commitment of £8.2 million of European Regional Development Fund (‘ERDF’) monies from the Mayor of London, two years into its five year investment period. The ERDF’s total commitment in MEEF now totals £51.2 million.
MEEF has, to date, committed 93% of its original ERDF capital allocation and has mobilised over £250 million of capital, reducing London’s CO2 emissions by over 12,500 tonnes per year and saving over 31 GWh of energy per annum.
The additional allocation of public sector funding from the Mayor of London is a clear recognition of MEEF’s success in supporting London’s Green Recovery and achieving its performance targets. MEEF has ensured that the Mayor’s commitments go further by match funding private sector financing from MEEF’s consortium of commercial banks, while also attracting other sources of public funding, such as the UK Government’s Heat Networks Investment Project, into London’s low carbon projects. To date, MEEF has agreed loans to both SMEs and to the public sector including to finance electric vehicle charging infrastructure, district heating schemes as well as energy performance contracts.
MEEF has a strong pipeline of projects earmarked for the next tranche of funding covering sectors such as streetlighting and low carbon mobility schemes. MEEF is also keen to support local authorities and other public sector bodies in tackling their ageing estates by facilitating investment in retrofit schemes to improve energy efficiency and lower operating and maintenance costs.
MEEF will continue to build on in its investment track record and contribute towards leading a Green Recovery by tackling climate change and air pollution across London.
Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Shirley Rodrigues said:
“The Mayor has committed to a Green New Deal which places climate action and fairness at the heart of our recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. This involves projects that upgrade London’s buildings, transport and energy networks to meet his net zero carbon target by 2030.
“Achieving this will require record levels of investment. MEEF’s success in its first two years has demonstrated what an important role it has played in mobilising the public and private sector investment required to make low carbon projects possible and create green jobs in the capital.”
Peter Radford, Director of MEEF, Amber Infrastructure: “It has been great to support such innovative projects, such as water source heat pumps and energy from waste heat networks, over the last two years and this additional funding from the Mayor of London will ensure MEEF can continue to support London’s net zero target by 2030.”
Jo Patrick, Co-Head of Sustainable Energy at Amber Infrastructure: “We welcome the Mayor’s continued support for MEEF through additional funding which will contribute towards a green and sustainable recovery for London. We are keen to see these funds benefitting a breadth of projects that will help meet carbon targets and will be beneficial to Londoners”
Please contact MEEF (meefinfo@amberinfrastructure.com) to discuss a potential application further.
Further information on MEEF can be found at: www.meef.co.uk
Further information on Amber Infrastructure can be found at: www.amberinfrastructure.com
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
ABOUT MEEF:
MEEF was established by the GLA in 2018 and is managed by Amber Infrastructure. MEEF provides a mixture of senior debt, mezzanine debt and equity to London’s public-sector property owners and small-to-medium-sized businesses, including but not exclusively, Local Authorities, NHS Trusts, Registered Providers, Higher and Further Education organisations, Charities and Voluntary Organisations, ESCOs and SMEs. MEEF can fund both up to 100 per cent of the capital cost of a project and part-fund large-scale regeneration projects which demonstrate low-carbon credentials.
ABOUT AMBER INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP
Amber Infrastructure ('Amber') is an international infrastructure specialist, focused on investment origination, development, asset management and in Europe, fund management. Amber’s core business focuses on infrastructure assets across the public, transport, energy, digital and demographic infrastructure sectors that support the lives of people, homes and businesses internationally.
Amber is headquartered in London with offices in Europe, North America and Australia and employs over 130 infrastructure professionals.
ABOUT EUROPEAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND
MEEF is receiving up to £51.2 million of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (and in London the intermediate body Greater London Authority) is the Managing Authority for European Regional Development Fund. Established by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund helps local areas stimulate their economic development by investing in projects which will support innovation, businesses, create jobs and local community regenerations. For more information visit https://www.gov.uk/european-growth-funding