On August 6, the Global ESCO Network timely delivered its input to the consultation initiated by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for drafting a document to guide its future, increased investments into energy efficiency. It is the Global ESCO Network’s declared goal to influence the institutional climate change community towards a (greater) regard for the ESCO business model and to improve the understanding among both financiers and regulators that ESCOs must be integrated with other initiatives, including financing, rather than be seen as a private sector operating separately from government initiated energy efficiency actions and programmes.
The draft guideline had already adopted ESCOs in several places, but the integration of ESCOs into the financial products offered by GCF to market actors was unclear. The overall message sent to GCF is that financing models and financing offered by the GCF that only target end users and owners of inefficient technology, and not the service providers, are at risk of outcompeting the private ESCOs. It is our hope that the final guidance will integrate ESCOs as possible beneficiaries of GCF-funded initiatives.
The Global ESCO Network provided its comments through UNEP CCC (where the Network is now hosted).