MEEF provides flexible and competitive finance to enable, accelerate or enhance low carbon projects to achieve London’s low carbon strategic ambition of a 60 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2025, and builds on the success of the GLA’s London Green Fund. The fund will support energy efficiency initiatives such as battery storage, electric vehicle infrastructure and low carbon data centers in Greater London for local authority, NHS, education, charity and voluntary bodies as well as select SMEs. The fund offers a wide range of funding options, through its consortium of funders on a per project basis.
Amber Infrastructure Group, GLA and European Commission along with Santander and other commercial funders will provide equity, subordinated and senior debt. Santander has committed the equal largest senior debt contribution to MEEF and will also support its day to day banking needs.
The senior debt facility led by Santander Corporate & Commercial forms a material portion of the total £500 million in lending capacity under MEEF. The funds can be accessed pending the identification of individual projects, with a minimum lending of £1 million per initiative. MEEF can invest across the capital structure, from rates as low as 1.50% for up to a maximum term of 20 years.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said, “This is the largest fund of its kind in the UK that will help deliver the low-carbon, sustainable projects and infrastructure London needs to cut energy costs and reduce carbon emissions across our universities, hospitals, museums and small businesses. It is a great example of how the public and private sectors can come together to create millions of pounds of investment for low-carbon projects and help fast track London towards our goal of becoming a zero-carbon city by 2050.”
