UCI and NN Bank, pilot partners of the EU-funded initiative ENGAGE for ESG, submitted the first data samples via the ENGAGE Templates during Q3 2024.
The ENGAGE Templates version 1.1, released in August 2024, covers the data fields necessary to align mortgage loans with the substantial contribution criteria for climate change mitigation and the do no significant harm principle of the Climate Delegated Act, as well as with the minimum safeguards.
“Using the ENGAGE Templates is a valuable and rewarding experience for UCI. It helps us to comply with the regulatory framework, improve our data quality, and increase our market knowledge. It certainly brings many benefits and also some challenges,” says UCI Corporate Sustainability Director, Cátia Alves.
“Based on our experience, the data extraction process to use the ENGAGE Templates requires a strong focus on the origination stage to capture all the necessary information,” she said.
“We look forward to sharing our experience in using the ENGAGE Templates with banks, lenders, and other financial institutions interested in understanding EU Taxonomy compliance for mortgages,” says founding father of Woonnu, Martijn Breed.
During the past weeks and months, the ENGAGE for ESG team focused on the data quality of the submissions and is now working towards producing the related EU Taxonomy alignment assessment of the UCI and NN Bank data samples.
European lending institutions are invited to participate in the ENGAGE for ESG initiative as test users, giving them exclusive access to the EU Taxonomy assessment until October 2025, by emailing engage4esg@eurodw.eu.
Media Contact:
Carla Scarsella
Tel. +49 (0) 69 50986 9320
Email: engage4esg@eurodw.eu
Project Background
Attracting private investments and stimulating green loan financing is crucial for the EU mission of achieving a zero-emission building stock by 2050. ENGAGE for ESG aims to provide a solution to have a single data disclosure format for mortgage funding and regulatory purposes encompassing the most relevant European ESG regulations such as the EU Taxonomy, EU GBS and EPBD. Thereby ENGAGE for ESG aims to facilitate a truly new format that facilitates both the banks, regulators and investors by combining existing mortgage disclosure(s) with new (and recently announced) ESG regulations, such as the EU Taxonomy. Creating transparency on definitions and requirements, with respect to the data-needs will allow the Financial Institutions to translate these needs towards the consumer products as well.
Why ENGAGE?
Buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of EU energy consumption and 36% of EU greenhouse gas emissions. Currently in Europe about 75% of existing buildings are qualified as ‘energy inefficient’. Every year about 1% of buildings undergo an energy efficient renovation[1]. Home renovations and the financing thereof should increase. Financing the energy efficiency improvement property stock is an important component in realising the greenhouse gas emission reduction objectives. The mortgage market can play a crucial role in providing funding to home renovation programmes aimed at improving the energy performance of the European building stock. The ENGAGE for ESG framework for energy efficient mortgages and renovations will create transparency through the translation and application of the relevant sections of the EU Taxonomy (and forthcoming EPBD) into the Dutch and Spanish national building and mortgage-lending practices that will ultimately contribute to standardisation of innovative and decarbonisation-targeted capital markets financing transactions.DISCLAIMER: Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
To achieve the proposed 55% emission reduction climate target by 2030, around EUR 275 billion of additional investments are needed per year.
© Copyright 2022-23 Engage. All Rights Reserved.
