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.

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.

This project, “International Review of Residential Building Energy Efficiency Rating Schemes”, is the fifth project in a series of work conducted through the Building Energy Efficiency Task Group (BEET), under the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC). This project report presents key governance and administrative considerations in the design of energy efficiency rating schemes, available information on the cost-effectiveness and market impact of rating schemes, barriers to uptake of schemes and lessons learned from the implementation of schemes.

Energy efficiency policies have the unique capacity to contribute to a more sustainable energy future at an economic net benefit even when co-benefits are not included in the evaluations. The purpose of this paper is to present quantitative and comparative information on the societal cost-effectiveness and the lifetime energy savings of all light eight building energy efficiency policy instruments.

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.

In-home displays, dynamic pricing, and automated devices aim to reduce residential electricity use—overall and during peak hours. We present a meta-analysis of 32 studies of the impacts of these interventions, conducted in the US or Canada. We find that methodological problems are common in the design of these studies, leading to artificially inflated results relative to what one would expect if the interventions were implemented in the general population.

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.

The Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group (“EFFIG”) identifies the need to engage multiple stakeholder groups, scale-up the use of several financial instruments within a clear and enforced “carrot and stick” legislative framework. This report identifies a number of approaches and instruments that have proven to encourage investments and multiple market barriers that stand in the way of an energy efficient Europe.

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.

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.

Owing to the rapid urban growth of past decades, the refurbishment of buildings has become a central topic of city development. A key aspect of building renovations deals with energy saving, both for economic and environmental concerns. The present literature mainly focuses on technological solutions for buildings, and the related data are studied with descriptive statistics. Instead, this paper aims to evaluate the energy effectiveness of refurbishment interventions from a global sector viewpoint.

The German government has developed a variety of policy instruments intended to reduce national CO2 emissions. These instruments include a programme administered by KfW bank, which aims at improving the energy efficiency of buildings. It provides attractive credit conditions or subsidies to finance refurbishment measures which improve the energy efficiency of buildings significantly. The refurbishment programme leads to a reduction in energy use, which benefits private investors by reducing their energy bills.

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.

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.

Low-income housing associations provide a unique opportunity for renewable energy installations, through potential scale of implementation sites, and in reducing social and financial costs to tenants. As an emerging field, a systematic review format was chosen as a method of providing a ‘state-of-the-art’ analysis for practitioners and researchers in the field of renewable energy and social housing applications. While literature reviews are common in analysis of energy applications across many fields, systematic reviews are much rarer.

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.

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.