The Green Finance Institute (GFI) has announced it is expanding in Europe with the appointment of Signe Fosgaard as the head of GFI Denmark and Eduardo Brunet as head of GFI Spain.

In the EU, the GFI will have an initial focus on decarbonising the built environment at a local, national and federal level, to unlock the capital required to increase renovation rates where 75 per cent of the EU’s building stock is classed as “energy-inefficient” and responsible for 36 per cent of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions. In order to solve this, there is an estimated €275bn climate investment gap.

GFI Denmark and Spain will be building upon the success of the GFI’s UK Built Environment Programme which has focused on generating capital for financing building decarbonisation, creating suitable conditions for scaling green building finance markets, and working with the finance industry and government to identify and remove barriers preventing the energy efficiency upgrades of buildings.

Dr Rhian Mari-Thomas OBE (pictured), the CEO of the Green Finance Institute, said: “Collaboration has been key to our success at the Green Finance Institute. Our aim is to scale successful solutions that will channel capital towards decarbonising our economies at the pace demanded by the science. With buildings in the EU responsible for 36 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, our initial focus will be on overcoming the barriers to investment in renovation upgrades by developing the innovative financial solutions and the enabling conditions to make buildings greener.”

In Spain, the GFI is focused on increasing the flow of private finance to decarbonise the economy with an initial focus on the built environment. The GFI is currently leading the finance work stream of the citiES 2030 programme – comprising eight Spanish cities – Barcelona, Madrid, Soria, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Zaragoza - as part of the EU’s mission to deliver 112 climate neutral and smart cities by 2030 through involving local authorities, citizens, businesses, investors and regional and national authorities.

In Denmark, the GFI has partnered with the World Climate Foundation to work with investors and the wider Danish real estate sector to design, operationalise, and bring to market financial mechanisms for de-risking and scaling up green real estate investment, initially in Denmark, but with the potential to scale into Nordic and other European countries.

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