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.

Nowadays, energy efficiency (EE) is presented as a reliable strategy towards sustainable development, but its application has not been developed equitably worldwide, since most EE policies have been implemented in industrialised nations, and developing countries are still in the process of improving their EE levels.

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.

Due to the growing concerns about global climate change and energy dependence, many countries have introduced regulations targeting the energy efficiency of the residential sector. However, whether these policies have been effective in reducing the total residential consumption of energy is still unclear. In this paper, we analyze the impact of residential energy efficiency policies on household energy consumption across Europe for the period 1980–2016.

The energy system is a vital infrastructure which can be vulnerable to climate variability and change (CV&C) impacts. Understanding the impacts can prevent disruption and inform policy decision making. This study applied a scoping review in a systematic manner following the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines to identify consistent patterns of CV&C impacts on the energy system, map and locate research gaps in the literature. A total of 176 studies were identified as eligible for inclusion in the review.

The EU and Australia have instituted significant new public policies to promote energy efficiency in the “built environment.” Many of these public policies were motivated by the same concerns that led to the pioneering voluntary initiatives of Green Building Councils (especially the LEED design certification program) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s ENERGY STAR system for buildings. However, policy initiatives on both continents are relatively new, have been recently modified, and are yet to be finalized.

Climate change and global warming as the main human societies’ threats are fundamentally associated with energy consumption and GHG emissions. The residential sector, representing 27% and 17% of global energy consumption and CO2 emissions, respectively, has a considerable role to mitigate global climate change. Ten countries, including China, the US, India, Russia, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Canada, Iran, and the UK, account for two-thirds of global CO2 emissions.

The paper answers three research questions: (1) Which policies prevail in Germany and Norway to foster the deployment of energy efficient and decarbonized solutions for residential buildings? (2) How do these policies respond to country-specific barriers to the energy transition in the building sector, and (3) What effects do they have on the actual implementation of technological and societal solutions?

Tackling fuel poverty requires significant capital investment, but it is also important to ensure that measures are directed at those who most need them in order to optimise the outcomes with regard to policy objectives. Understanding whether current delivery mechanisms are adequately funded and are effectively targeting fuel poor households is essential, not least because legal commitments exist to eliminate fuel poverty.

The European construction industry, like many others, is confronted by an economy that isundergoing a highly significant change, shaped by megatrends such as greater urbanisation,disruptive new technologies and digitalisation, globalised value chains and sustainability.At the same time, the European economy faces the profound challenge of meeting theambitious climate mitigation goal set out in the Paris Agreement of keeping average globalwarming to well below 2˚C.

Pricing carbon and moving toward mandatory disclosure of climate-related financial risks, as part of a broader policy package. Accelerating investment in sustainable infrastructure, supported by clear national and sub-national strategies and programmes. Harnessing the power of the private sector, including to unleash innovation and advance supply chain transparency. Ensuring a people-centred approach, such that the gains are shared equitably and the transition is just.

Decarbonisation Futures provides a guide for Australian government and business decision makers on priority technologies, deployment pathways and benchmarks for achieving net zero emissions. Decarbonisation Futures shows Australia can still play its part in meeting the Paris Climate Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees. This report identifies the priority technologies and actions for achieving net zero emissions across all sectors of the Australian economy.

This report is the first report of the ‘Energy Savings 2030’-project which seeks to help the Coalition for Energy Savings to produce a robust and timely input to the 2030 policy discussion. It brings together and summarises recent empirical evidence on costs and benefits of energy efficiency measures. The evidence gap in terms of reliable ex-post data is well known. In the majority of cases results from ex-ante modelling studies inform the debate. The research carried out for this report confirms the persistent gap in publicly available ex-post evaluations of energy efficiency programmes.

A practical decision support pack to aid policy makers and experts in developing countries. The objective of the Sustainable Building Policies in Developing Countries (SPoD) project is to enable authorities at national and local levels to analyse existing policies affecting the building sector, and to identify packages of policy instruments for sustainable buildings, which can be adapted to fit local conditions.

This article provides useful information that could help you address some barriers to sustainable initiatives: Every executive that you speak to is aware that data can be manipulated and may be skeptical of studies conducted by organizations that could benefit from a particular set of results. So I've included information on independent third-party studies. In challenging economic times, people are particularly concerned about short-term cash flow.

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.

The main aim of this report is to contribute to the exchange of good practices and to support EU MS by providing potential ideas for the elaboration of long-term renovation plans. The report compiles renovation requirements as well as financial instruments, support programmes and market mechanisms for building renovation in a number of countries and regions. While the main focus of the report is on selected EU MS, a few global examples are also presented.

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.