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.

This paper reviews the empirical literature that provides a correlation between the different barriers to energy efficiency and consumer behavior related to two domains. It evaluates behavior related to energy curtailment, which represents routine, repetitive effort to decrease consumption on a day-to-day basis. It also considers behavior related to investments, which are one time actions such as purchasing new energy efficiency technologies. The paper also reviews the existing literature that assesses the effect of policies on energy use and investment in energy efficiency technologies.

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 UN Sustainable Energy for All initiative aims to double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency by 2030.i Efficient buildings are vital to achieving sustainable development because they align economic, social, and environmental objectives, creating triple bottom line benefits. However, the scale and pace of current actions around the world are insufficient to transform buildings into engines of the sustainable, energy efficient economy. This second-edition report reviews government policy options that can accelerate building energy efficiency improvements.

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.

Thanks to new insights on the impacts that dwellings have throughout their life cycles, there has been increased attention to retrofitting innovative energy systems (IES) in existing housing. This paper uses an explorative case study design to gain more knowledge about the governance aspects of this under-researched topic. The central research question is: Which factors influence the adoption of innovative energy systems in social housing sites during renovation projects? To answer this question, eight large-scale renovation projects in The Netherlands were investigated.

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.

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.

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.

While energy efficiency can contribute significantly towards improving access to modern energy services, energy sector investments in many developing countries have largely focused on increasing energy access by increasing supply. This is because the links between energy efficiency and energy access, is often overlooked. This oversight of energy efficiency is frequently a missed opportunity, as efficiency is often a very cost-effective energy resource.

Addressing housing-related energy consumption and emissions is a challenge in many countries. Low-energy housing, e.g. whole house retrofits and zero-energy new houses, is still rare in the United Kingdom, yet very much required to reduce emissions. This paper contributes to research on low-energy housing by adding new empirical material through analysing how specific drivers linked to knowledge, public policy and intermediary actors can influence successful projects.