Contact: Katie Weeks, Director of Communications
202-525-2883, x306 / Katie.weeks@imt.org
IMT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CLIFF MAJERSIK JOINS LEADERS IN PARIS TO ANNOUNCE NEW FUNDING FOR THE CITY ENERGY PROJECT.
December 4, 2015—Paris, France—“Today, I am pleased to represent the Institute for Market Transformation and the City Energy Project at the Climate Summit for Local Leaders in Paris, France, to announce a major reinvestment in the City Energy Project from our funders, supporting an additional three years of work with $10.5 million in new funding, raising the project’s total funding to $20 million. This joint initiative of IMT and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is actively working with leaders in U.S. cities to make a dramatic positive impact on our cities’ resilience, health, and prosperity by targeting their largest source of energy use and climate pollution: buildings. We cannot make significant, lasting progress toward critical climate goals without addressing building energy use, and it is local leaders such as those involved in the City Energy Project who are actively undertaking leadership roles in charting the path toward this outcome. We are honored to participate in this important work with them—work that would not be possible without the generosity and support of our funders, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Kresge Foundation, to whom we are grateful for their continued investment.
“IMT’s vision is a world in which all buildings are energy efficient. Through projects such as the City Energy Project, we work to support the creation, adoption, and implementation of bold and innovative policies and programs that breakdown the market barriers to realizing this vision. Local leaders such as mayors are already taking significant steps to reduce harmful pollution, with the understanding that they cannot delay efforts to make their cities more resilient and sustainable in the face of global competition, changing climate, and increasingly extreme weather.
“Through the City Energy Project, we are supporting cities as they act quickly, foster a diversity of innovation, capture best practices, and collaborate to create permanent market change. The results can be enormous. We estimate that the combined action of the 10 cities participating in the City Energy Project could reduce energy bills by over $900 million annually and reduce carbon pollution equivalent to taking 1 to 1.3 million passenger vehicles off the road each year.
“We are energized by this renewed commitment to the City Energy Project and look forward to working with cities across the U.S., our partners, and our funders to create more efficient, healthier, and prosperous buildings, cities, states, and countries.”
