A new analysis framework is developed and applied to assess the benefits of building energy efficiency policies and programs. One of the main advantages of the new energy productivity analysis is that it accounts for both economic and energy performances of energy efficiency actions using only one metric. Specifically, the approach applies the concept of energy productivity to the building sector and accounts for both value added and energy savings of energy efficiency measures.

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.

The National Energy Productivity Plan (NEPP) is a package of measures to improve Australia’s energy productivity by 40% between 2015 and 2030. The NEPP is delivered jointly between the Australian Government and the state and territory governments. Energy Ministers recognised that improving energy productivity helps: businesses reduce their energy costs through innovation and modernising their infrastructure; households benefit through lower energy bills and increased home comfort; Australia reduce its greenhouse emissions.

The review of policies being implemented in China, the EU, India and the US presented in this report has also identified some key challenges that we must address if we are going to realize the mitigation potential of the building sector. Chief among these is the need to improve our monitoring of the impact that our policies are having. Lack of measured and verifiable data on the influence of policies on building energy performance currently hampers our ability to assess and continuously improve their effectiveness.

The Dutch Government stimulates the application of energy efficiency measures to reduce the energy requirements of buildings, which are responsible for about 20% of the Dutch CO2 emissions. For our assessment, we followed a qualitative approach, due to a lack of data. We reviewed the mix of policy instruments and used stakeholder surveys and interviews. We found that energy use is not very likely to decline fast enough to achieve the Dutch policy targets for 2020. For new buildings, the policy mix works well, but its contribution to the policy targets is limited.

Energy efficiency is a complex concept which is represented in diverse fields including engineering, economics, energy, computer sciences, environmental sciences, mathematics and physics. The social sciences literature on energy efficiency, however, remains significantly underrepresented, comprising just 2.6% of the total energy efficiency literature found in this study. Energy efficiency is an important energy policy strategy globally to reduce energy consumption, secure energy supply, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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.

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.

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.

This Annual Report covers the second in a 15-year plan and shows that the NEPP has continued to progress well. Throughout 2017, measures across the work plan have advanced and many have achieved significant outcomes. There has also been wider progress in energy policy and jurisdictional measures which will contribute strongly to energy productivity and NEPP objectives. This document highlights key outcomes, their expected impacts and links to broader reforms.

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.

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.

In recent years, global warming has been a major issue in every country all over the world which has yet to be resolved. World Development Indicator states, the amounts of carbon emission in Malaysia are increasing at an uncontrollable rate especially near the end of Year 2014 with a rate of 8 metric tons per capita. This rate lead to the implementation of "greener" approach towards industrial sector which includes the construction industry.

Globally, building energy regulation has been an effective policy instrument for reducing energy use and carbon emissions. In Australia, the majority of regions address building performance through the National Construction Code. However, in 2004 the New South Wales government introduced a planning instrument called the ‘Building Sustainability Index’, known as BASIX. Until now there has been limited investigation of this sustainability index approach compared with addressing issues individually through building standards.

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.

Proposed changes flowing from the former Council of Australian Government’s Trajectory for Low Energy Buildings project1 (the trajectory) are expected to reduce annual electricity consumption of new and refurbished residential and commercial premises by 36 TWh by 2050, compared to current standards.

Buildings are the largest energy consuming sector in the world. Accounting for over one-third of total final energy consumption, they are an equally important source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Achieving significant energy and emissions reduction in the buildings sector is a challenging but achievable policy goal. Transition to Sustainable Buildings presents detailed scenarios and strategies to 2050 and demonstrates how to reach deep energy and emissions reduction through a combination of best available technologies and intelligent public policy.