The U.S. Conference of Mayors has signed a joint resolution to "support the Capital Markets Partnership's Sustainable Investment Initiative to generate market investment in high performance green buildings through Sustainable Mortgage Backed Securities that will stimulate the economy and combat climate change." They also, "...encourage additional public-private partnerships to increase market investment in environmental innovation and climate protection."
The resolution was adopted at the 76th Annual Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors held June 20-24, 2008 in Miami. It was sponsored by: Hon. Gavin Newsom, Mayor, City & County of San Francisco; Hon. Richard Daley, Mayor, City of Chicago; Hon. Chuck Reed, Mayor of San Jose; Hon. Manuel A. Diaz, Mayor of Miami and President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
The Capital Markets Partnership is made up of a consensus-based group of investors, banks, insurance companies, city & state governments, USGBC, Sustainable Furniture Council, and other environmental and public consumer groups. The SMaRT Sustainable Standard based on Life Cycle Assessment of products with a third party audit, is the underwriting criteria for the Sustainable Investment Initiative.
Full copy of the Conference of Mayors Resolution below:
WHEREAS, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the
international community’s respected assembly of scientists, has
found that human activities are largely responsible for
increasing concentrations of greenhouse gas pollutants in the
atmosphere and resulting climate change; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has taken action to
combat climate change, including the establishment of the U.S.
Conference of Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement, signed by
over 830 mayors representing over 79 million Americans; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. building sector is responsible for 48 percent
of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, according to
the U.S. Energy Information Administration; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the American
Institute of Architects have called for immediate energy
reduction of all new and renovated buildings to one-half the
national average for that building type, with increased
reductions of 10 percent every five years so that by the year
2030 all new buildings will be carbon neutral; and
WHEREAS, federal, state and local governments have adopted green
building standards for construction of public buildings and many
jurisdictions are now expanding green building standards to
commercial and residential buildings in their communities; and
WHEREAS, public-private partnerships that utilize market
mechanisms to advance green building activity in the US are
essential to ensure that environmental building standards can be
raised while at the same time growing our national economy; and
WHEREAS, major investment banks, institutional investors and
governments, led by the City and County of San Francisco and
JPMorgan Chase, have worked together to advance the Capital
Markets Partnership’s Sustainable Investment Initiative that
will generate unprecedented market investment in green buildings
constructed in the US; and
WHEREAS, this partnership has completed a peer reviewed report
called ‘Creating Economic Stimulus While Stopping Climate Credit
Risk/Irreversibility’ that demonstrates that climate induced
property damages have caused increases of 100 to 600 percent in
insurance rates and also reduced availability of coverage, and
have caused rating agencies to conclude that these developments
have “serious credit implications”; and
WHEREAS, this report identifies investment products, including
mortgage-backed securities exclusively for green buildings, that
can be developed to increase investment in green buildings,
decrease credit risk in the current investment environment, and
help to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. building
industry; and
WHEREAS, the Partnership will be launching the Green Building
Investment Underwriting Standards and Sustainable Mortgage
Backed Securities initiatives at the New York Stock Exchange,
which will generate investments projected to assist in the
building of over two million green buildings and one million
certified sustainable products by 2015, add one trillion dollars
per year to the economy, and stop/prevent imminent, irreversible
and dangerous climate change,
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of
Mayors supports the efforts of the Capital Markets Partnership’s
Sustainable Investment Initiative to generate market investment
in high performance green buildings through Sustainable Mortgage
Backed Securities that will stimulate the economy and combat
climate change, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors
encourages additional public-private partnerships to increase
market investment in environmental innovation and climate
protection.
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