Energy-efficient houses for Mexico

Frankfurt (ots) -

- KfW-financed model programme winner of a UNFCCC award
- USD 230 million for energy-efficient housing construction in
Mexico
- Based on the German KfW promotional programmes for
energy-efficient construction

The secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) has announced today that it has given an
award to a programme co-financed by KfW for sustainable housing
construction in Mexico (EcoCasa). Around USD 230 million has gone
into the EcoCasa programme, with KfW contributing over USD 128
million (Inter American Development Bank USD 102 million, including
USD 51.5 million from the Clean Technology Fund). KfW is funding
EcoCasa via the Mexican state development bank Sociedad Hipotecaria
Federal (SHF) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the EU Commission as well as the
NAMA facility of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment,
Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the UK Department of
Energy and Climate Change (DECC). The programme is running for a
period of seven years, during which private investment of roughly
half a billion US dollars is to be mobilised for the construction of
over 38,000 energy-efficient houses and 600 passive houses for lower
income segments.

"The Mexican EcoCasa programme not only saves over a million tons
of carbon dioxide emissions throughout the entire life cycle of the
houses but also provides a new level of residential quality, thus
improving living conditions for many families. This is a valuable
contribution placing Mexico on a green trajectory in development in
the housing sector," said Dr Norbert Kloppenburg, a member of the KfW
Group's Executive Board.

Based on the system used in the German KfW programmes for
energy-efficient construction, EcoCasa establishes three fixed energy
efficiency standards, which are promoted in the form of inexpensive
loans and direct grants among other things. In this way, the Mexican
government is creating an incentive for the construction of
low-energy houses and the use of modern technology, such as facade
cladding, building insulation and solar panels, which particularly
reduce the energy required to cool buildings. Such houses require at
least twenty percent less energy than conventional buildings. EcoCasa
is incorporated into a "Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action"
("NAMA" for short), which has been launched by the Mexican government
for sustainable housing and developed with the aid of German
Technical Cooperation. NAMAs, which have arisen as a financing
instrument from the UN climate protection talks, are voluntary
climate protection activities established by emerging and developing
countries to sever the link between economic growth and emissions of
greenhouse gases. In return, these countries receive international
support. The specific NAMA on which the EcoCasa programme is based
has its origins in a proposal tabled by the Mexican government at the
Durban Climate Summit in 2011. For the first time, climate protection
funding is being mobilised from various international sources to
promote the implementation of a NAMA.

"The course being taken with EcoCasa is an innovative new approach
to climate protection in Mexico. In this way, Mexico is adopting a
pioneering role for emerging and developing countries in terms of the
instruments used in housing construction," said Dr Kloppenburg. As an
emerging country, Mexico has been seeing a steady rise in energy
consumption for a long time, with seventeen percent of this
attributable to private homes. Driven by swift population growth -
Mexico's population increases by an average of 2 million per year -
and the desire of the growing middle class for improved residential
quality, demand for homes will continue to rise sharply over the next
few years. For this reason, energy-efficient housing construction
offers the Mexican government an important lever for capping energy
consumption and protecting the climate.

KfW is one of the world's largest financers of climate and
environment protection programmes. In 2012, roughly 60 percent (EUR
2.8 billion) of the KfW Development Bank's new commitments were for
environmental and climate protection finance, making it one of the
world's largest financers of renewable energies in developing
countries.

Contact:
KfW, Palmengartenstr. 5 - 9, 60325 Frankfurt
Kommunikation (KOM), Dr. Charis Pöthig
Tel. +49 (0)69 7431 4683, Fax: +49 (0)69 7431 3266,
E-Mail: presse@kfw.de, Internet: www.kfw.de