A prescription for a post-COVID economy: A national climate bank

BY Maria Gallucci, Salon Reporter — 06/28/2021

Salon reports on the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has catalyzed another economic meltdown — with an unemployment rate over 13 percent — and how the green bank concept is making a comeback. The green bank is the idea of a nonprofit institution that would use public money to help cash-strapped businesses invest in solar panels, wind farms, and energy-efficiency building retrofits.

Here is an excerpt that features SELF:

Similarly, in Florida, the Solar and Energy Loan Fund, or SELF, provides microloans for residents who otherwise couldn’t get financing for sustainable home improvements due to barriers such as low credit scores. The program has financed over $12 million in projects, helping some 4,000 people install solar water heaters and solar panels or put hurricane shutters over windows. SELF is currently expanding to include affordable multi-family housing units in South Florida and to help homeowners replace aging septic and sewage systems.

“Many folks do not have access to traditional financing, so they’re forced to suffer the consequences or to rely on predatory lenders,” Doug Coward, the bank’s executive director, said on a recent conference call hosted by the Coalition for Green Capital. “The level of demand for access to affordable financing is significant,” he added, “and that was before the current crisis that we’re in now.”

Doug Coward, self executive director

(Salon, Jun. 28, 2020).

The article can be found here.

Read More From SELF