Clinton, cities, unveil $5 bln buildings energy plan

By Michelle Nichols and Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Five global banks will raise $5 billion in loans to make existing buildings up to 50 percent more energy efficient with New York, London, Tokyo, Sao Paulo and Johannesburg among the first 15 cities to take part.

Under the plan, unveiled on Wednesday by former President Bill Clinton, city governments and building owners will repay the loans plus interest with savings made from reduced energy costs created by the energy-efficient retrofit.

"Climate change is a global problem that requires local action," Clinton said in a statement, adding that businesses, banks and cities would "save money, make money, create jobs and have a tremendous collective impact on climate change."

Citigroup, UBS, Deutsche Bank, ABN AMRO and JPMorgan Chase have agreed to arrange $1 billion each for the Clinton Climate Initiative's Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Program.

The money will be used to fund the building make-overs at no net cost. It more than doubles the amount for energy-saving building retrofits, said the Clinton Climate Initiative.

Energy service companies Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Siemens and Trane, owned by American Standard, have agreed to boost capacity to allow them to do large numbers of building make-overs and will financially guarantee energy savings from the projects.

New York, London, Tokyo, Bangkok, Johannesburg, Berlin, Chicago, Houston, Karachi, Melbourne, Mexico City, Rome, Sao Paulo, Seoul and Toronto have offered their municipal buildings for the first round of energy retrofits.

ENERGY CONSUMPTION