In the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) adopted in May 2010, a benchmarking mechanism for national energy performance requirements was introduced. The purpose of this is to determine cost-optimal levels to be used by Member States for comparing and setting these requirements. The previous EPBD (from 2002) set out a general framework to assess the energy performance of buildings and required Member States to define maximum values for energy delivered to meet the energy demand associated with the standardised use of the building.

The building sector is not on track to lower total greenhouse gas emissions. Given that emissions from the sector represent nearly 40% of global energy-and process-related emissions, this represents a serious challenge to keeping global warming to 1.5oC. The Buildings sector must therefore decarbonize.To support this goal, this report focuses on policy drivers for decarbonisation, and the costs and benefits associated with their implementation.

It is clear that city must be part of the solution if an urbanizing world is to grapple successfully with ecological challenges such as energy depletion and climate change. A system dynamics model was developed in this study using STELLA platform to model the energy consumption and CO2 emission trends for the City of Beijing over 2005–2030. Results show that the total energy demand in Beijing is predicted to reach 114.30 million tonnes coal equivalent (Mtce) by 2030, while that value in 2005 is 55.99 Mtce, which is 1.04 times higher than the level in 2005.

Energy efficiency plays an important role in reducing the carbon externality from buildings, but economic analyses of more efficient, green building have thus far ignored input costs. This paper finds that the average marginal cost of green-labeled construction projects is smaller than the value premiums documented in the literature. However, design fees, representing just a fraction of development costs but paid largely up-front, are significantly higher for green construction projects. These projects also take longer to complete.

This research combines two parallel and complementary work packages.The first examines the relationship between technical building energy performance improvements relating to electricity and gas end uses (e.g.

Focusing on the voluntary LEED and ENERGY STAR environmental certification schemes in the United States, we investigate whether price premiums exist across all building value categories or are localized to specific value segments. We find that the largest value building segment does not demonstrate any price premiums, while the smallest value categories do. The concentrated supply of eco-labeled offices in large, high-quality buildings likely contributes to this phenomenon.

This article is concerned with a comprehensive analysis of building energy efficiency policies in light of improvements in energy performance, living standards and climate change mitigation in China's built environment. In recent years, China has added about 1.7 billion square meters of new floor space in both urban and rural areas on an annual basis. In 2010, the total area of existing buildings in China was approximately 48.6 billion square meters, nearly twice the total of existing buildings areas in the European Union.

Over half of the population of the world live in
urban areas. This means that efforts to meet human
development goals and sustain economic growth
must be concentrated in cities. However, the pursuit
of more prosperous, inclusive and sustainable urban
development is complicated by climate change, which
multiplies existing environmental risks, undermines the
effectiveness of existing infrastructure, and creates new
resource constraints.
In this paper, we conclusively demonstrate that there

This document is a tool designed to help organizations and policymakers around the world craft their own Roadmaps—published documents that detail the economic, jobs, environmental and security benefits of doubling energy productivity—that clearly articulate a target date for doubling energy productivity and detail achievable policy recommendations necessary to achieving the goal. Clean energy markets around the world are undergoing a revolution as countries, companies and citizens seek paths to a prosperous economic future that also protect the environment.

The research examines the installation of sustainable (green) property development, typified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification in legacy cities in comparison to non-legacy cities. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), green buildings represent resource-efficient models for construction and operation that are designed to use fewer resources and generate less pollution.

Building energy code change in Australia, and many other developed nations, is subject to standardised economic tests, with a net present value calculation at the heart of the economic analysis. Although many nations have introduced minimum energy efficiency standards for residential and commercial buildings, increases in stringency have been hindered by limitations to the range of private and societal impacts typically incorporated in regulatory impact assessments.

With increasing global awareness of sustainable development, federal and local authorities in the UAE have developed agendas for energy efficiency in all development sectors, especially for buildings and urban development. With the belief that urban form is integral to urban sustainability, several recently developed single-family social housing neighborhoods in the UAE have shifted from conventional sprawling urban forms to more compact ones. Unfortunately, the impact of this shift on operational and cooling energy use intensities (EUIs) is unknown.

In order to carry out an ex-post assessment of the completed Building Energy Efficiency Special Planning, a comprehensive ex-post assessment methodology is established. The methodology sets out the ex-post assessment criteria from three dimensions and 27 indexes, and apply the Fuzzy Synthetic Evaluation Method to build the ex-post assessment model. Applying the methodology, this research assesses the effectiveness of the Building Energy Efficiency Special Planning in Beijing during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period.

To date, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, mitigation strategies and the accompanying health co-benefits in different economic sectors have not been fully investigated. The purpose of this paper is to review comprehensively the evidence on GHG mitigation measures and the related health co-benefits, identify knowledge gaps, and provide recommendations to promote further development and implementation of climate change response policies.

This report sets out the positive and negative impacts of improvements in energy efficiency in buildings that could come about through a recast of the Energy Performance Buildings Directive (EPBD). Successive studies have shown that energy efficiency offers many of the most cost-effective options for meeting global emission targets. In many cases, energy efficiency measures have been shown to be ‘negative cost’, meaning that it would be economically advantageous to implement them.

This report presents the results of a state-by-state analysis of the potential energy and cost savings from improving compliance with building energy codes to 100 percent from current levels. The report also examines 45 statewide compliance evaluation studies, providing a summary of evaluation methods and key findings. Evidence in most states indicates that staggering rates of non-compliance, as high as 100 percent in some jurisdictions, have eroded the gains from energy code development and adoption.

Concerns about climate change, energy security and energy productivity are driving countries to improve energy and thermal efficiency of their housing. Australia established a Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) in the mid-1990s to encourage improved energy performance, before regulating minimum energy standards in the 2000s. While minimum standards in Australia have improved, they fall short of requirements for a low carbon future. Resistance to new standards has been predicated on the argument that consumers will drive the market.