Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries are major energy producers and consumers in the world, and they have enormous potential for energy cooperation, energy saving, and CO2 emissions reduction due to their various resource endowments. However, little quantitative research has been conducted under the BRI in the same framework.

The built environment accounts for approximately forty percent of the total energy consumption in developed countries. Because buildings have a long life, the greatest opportunity for energy reduction in the built environment will come from energy conservation in the existing building stock. An overview of the policy challenges presented by the built environment, with an emphasis on existing facilities, is accompanied by a discussion of specific technologies that may have the potential to reduce energy use.

Around the world, engineers, architects and policymakers have been exploring ways to deliver highly efficient buildings whose reduced energy demand is satisfied by clean, renewable energy. Building off of the broader concept of a green or sustainable building, the concept of the “net zero building” focuses on the energy dynamics and performance of the building. And as policymakers and leaders align toward the net zero concept, the focus on achieving deep energy efficiency has centered on integrated technologies as well as ways to connect buildings to the natural environment.

The gap between actual carbon prices and those required to achieve ambitious climate change mitigation could be closed by enhancing the public acceptability of carbon pricing through appropriate use of the revenues raised. In this Perspective, we synthesize findings regarding the optimal use of carbon revenues from both traditional economic analyses and studies in behavioural and political science that are focused on public acceptability.

With the urgency of climate change, and billions spent globally on renewable energy (RE) support policies, it is crucial to understand which policies are effective. Substantial scholarly research on RE deployment policies has been carried out over the last two decades, resulting in inconclusive findings regarding the effectiveness of mobilizing private finance. Here, we take a novel perspective and review 96 empirical studies concerning the impact of policies on two key investor decision metrics: investment risk and investment return.

For 118 million residential housing units in the U.S., there is currently a gap between the potential energy savings that can be achieved through the use of existing energy efficiency technologies, and the actual level of energy savings realized, particularly for the 37% of housing units that are considered residential rental properties. Additional quantifiable benefits are needed beyond energy savings to help further motivate residential property owners to invest in energy efficiency upgrades. This research focuses on assessing the adoption of energy efficient upgrades in U.S.

Residential buildings use approximately 20 percent of the total U.S. energy consumption, and single-family homes alone account for about 16 percent. Older homes are less energy efficient than newer ones, and, although many experts have identified upgrades and improvements that can yield significant energy savings at relatively low costs, it has proven to be difficult to spur most homeowners into making these investments.

Contemporary societies are facing a broad range of challenges, from pressures on human health and well-being to natural capital depletion, and the security of food, water and energy. These challenges are deeply intertwined with global processes, such as climate change and with local events such as natural disasters. The EU's research & innovation (R&I) policy is now seeking to address these challenges from a new perspective, with Nature-Based Solutions, and turn them into innovation opportunities that optimise the synergies between nature, society and the economy.

This paper focuses on the willingness to pay for green housing in China. First, we introduce green building related labels in China and briefly discuss the consumers’ incentives to buy this kind of building. Second, with the available transaction data in Shanghai, a hedonic regression model is applied to investigate whether or not a price premium in the residential market exists. Furthermore, we use the nonparametric matching model under a treatment framework to see the robustness of our results. The empirical result shows there exists a significant price premium in China.

A JRC workshop on split incentives organised in the framework of article 19(1)(a) of the Energy Efficiency Directive (Directive) has been organised in order to examine current solutions addressing split incentives in the building sector in Europe and beyond. The workshop focused on the social housing, private residential and commercial sectors. Practices from Italy, the Netherlands, the UK, Denmark, Sweden and the US were presented and a panel discussion between representatives from groups of landlords, tenants, social housing and ESCOs was held.

Municipal policies can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help to mitigate climate change. It is often unclear why cities would adopt such policies, however, given that the benefits from climate mitigation will be felt globally, rather than exclusively locally. Studies have identified a rationale for urban mitigation and energy policies rooted in local co-benefits, such as improvements in local environmental quality or job creation. Here we explore the possibility of financial co-benefits: whether municipal climate policies lead to an enhanced creditworthiness.

This paper presents a comprehensive literature review of what drives the adoption of green building (GB) practices among construction stakeholders. The review is based on literature that have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Through a systematic review of the literature, authors are able to identify generic drivers for stakeholders to pursue GB. A total of 64 drivers were identified from reviewing 42 selected empirical studies. The paper presents a classification framework for the GB drivers.

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.

This paper analyses the field of innovation studies regarding barriers to low-carbon innovation and consequences for finance (investment and divestment) and contributes to a more holistic understanding of the underlying mechanisms. A combination of technological barriers combined with economic barriers, institutional and political barriers contribute to suboptimal low-carbon investment all along the innovation cycle. Policy makers need to take a systemic approach to enable the redirection of diverse private financial sources.

Standards, subsidies, and carbon taxes are among the measures often considered to reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in the buildings sector. Using a modeling system developed by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, residential and commercial sector standards and subsidies were each modeled with and without a carbon tax to determine if a multipolicy approach would be redundant. A separate case examining a carbon tax was also completed for comparison.

Improving residential energy efficiency is widely recognised as one of the best strategies for reducing energy demand, combating climate change, and increasing security of energy supply. However, progress has been slow to date due to a number of market and behavioural barriers that have not been adequately addressed by energy efficiency policies and programmes. This study is based on updated findings of the European Futures for Energy Efficiency Project that responds to the EU Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014–2015 theme ‘Secure, clean and efficient energy’.