• To tackle the climate emergency, Wales urgently needs to make progress on reducing carbon emissions across all housing tenures.
• Home heating accounts for 38% of all UK gas use and nearly 60% in Wales. An average household gas boiler emits greenhouse gases equivalent to approximately 2.2 tonnes of CO2 per year. This is roughly equivalent to taking seven flights between London and New York.
• Affordability is one of the key barriers to the uptake of retrofit measures. Finance will have a huge role to play in the green transition at all levels, including in our homes. Getting this finance offer right is an area where innovation is clearly needed.
• It must be made easier and more affordable for people to use greener home heating systems and upgrade their homes to be more energy efficient - saving themselves money and making it easier to have an energy system powered by renewables in Wales.

Working with the Development Bank of Wales, Nesta is exploring the needs of homeowners when it comes to ways to finance green home improvements. We want to understand attitudes to green upgrades, and finance to help pay for them. These insights will help us understand what demand there may be for these types of products generally, and what sort of product or service would incentivise which types of homeowners.

We will also explore how to embed these products in an end-to-end service ecosystem which meets related needs like advice, and finding competent trustworthy installers.

Nesta is taking a multidisciplinary approach to present the Development Bank of Wales with insights and options for a potential pilot for a green homes finance product. This project will also explore what role government-backed finance is best placed to play, and will also contribute to the wider understanding of green finance in the UK.

This is an exciting project to be involved in as we understand more about the attitudes and needs of homeowners and landlords and respond to the ongoing global financial constraints. We can apply our innovation methods to this work at each stage.