News

London delivers on C40 cities/Clinton Climate Initiative to make buildings cleaner and greener

August 31, 2007

The Mayor Ken Livingstone today (Friday 31st August) announced that he is inviting companies to submit bids to make the Greater London Authority Group's buildings more energy efficient. The first set of buildings to get their energy efficiency upgrade will include up to 100 buildings from the Greater London Authority Group and will include some landmark office buildings such as Transport for London's head quarters at Windsor House.

This is the first step in taking forward the deal developed by the Clinton Climate Initiative for the C40 cities at the New York Large Cities Climate Summit in May 2007, to cut carbon emissions by making existing buildings more energy efficient. It will make London the first of the 16 cities signed up to the scheme to begin work. This is just the start of the process which will allow this offer to be opened to the whole of the public sector - a framework will be created that the public sector can use. It is anticipated that the private sector will see the benefits of this also. London's commercial and public sector buildings alone produce around 15 million tonnes of CO2 per year and accounts for 33 per cent of total London emissions.

A notice is being placed in the Official Journal of the European Union, seeking expressions of interest for an initial contract. The companies bidding for the contract will need to provide a range of services, including surveying and auditing the buildings to assess which are the most appropriate energy efficiency measures for the building, such as energy efficient lighting, insulation and combined cooling heat and power. Alongside the energy audit, the companies will need to plan, project manage and implement the energy efficiency measures that the building requires, and they will guarantee to meet an energy savings target over an agreed period. Over the coming months, the Greater London Authority Group will also be developing a framework agreement which will enable the rest of the public sector in London to benefit from this scheme and we will also work to engage the private sector.

The Greater London Authority Group includes Transport for London, The Metropolitan Police Authority, the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority and the London Development Agency. The 900 buildings run by the Greater London Authority group alone could save up to 50,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year, and in excess of one million pounds through lower energy bills, providing more money for investment in public services. The Greater London Authority Group includes office buildings and operational transport, fire and police stations.

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone said: 'London is leading the way by becoming the first of the sixteen cities signed up to the C40/Clinton Climate Initiative programme to begin work to cut climate change emissions by making our buildings more energy efficient. We have started the tender process for companies to bid for the first part of the work and I hope that this will also lead to a boost in London's green industries.'

In May 2007, the Mayor joined with President Clinton and mayors from major cities across the world to announce the creation of the global Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Programme. The C40/ Clinton Climate Initiative programme brought together four of the world's largest Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), five of the world's largest banks and sixteen of the world's largest cities. The programme offers building owners a package with three elements: (1) an energy audit to quantify current energy use and emissions from a building and recommendations on a full range of measures to reduce them, (2) a comprehensive, discounted offer of goods and services guaranteed to deliver the identified reductions, and (3) optional financing element to pay for the works, paid back through the guaranteed energy savings.