Various policies targeting at building energy efficiency have been promulgated by the Chinese government in the past decade. However, few studies evaluate if China is on the right path to meet its energy goals through these policies by providing an assessment of their effect in reducing energy consumption in residential buildings or the feasibility of such policies to catalyze these reductions.

The last two decades have seen a tremendous increase in the stringency of California’s building energy efficiency code, Title 24 Part 6. Along with these changes, the complexity of the code has increased dramatically, as different design options for building envelope, heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) and lighting systems have become available under prescriptive compliance paths.

The “Clean Energy for All Europeans” package confirms the pivotal role of the EU building stock in meeting EU 2030 climate and energy targets. In fact, the projected decarbonisation of the EU energy system is mainly based on the renovation of existing buildings and the increased penetration of renewable energies in heating, cooling and power generation.

Current regulatory pathways to compliance in energy efficiency for Australian housing are via provisions in the National Construction Code (NCC). This paper first identifies performance evaluation criteria set out in the code presented as a comparative analysis across the different methods of achieving compliance. Jurisdictional and concessional variations are discussed and thereafter an examination of the effect of specific design and location factors that impact the commonly used deemed to satisfy route to compliance.

Discussion paper and roadmap Stage 1 for commercial, institutional, and government buildings and fitouts

In NSW more than 10% of households and small business premises have installed a solar photovoltaic (PV) system (commonly called solar panels). When these solar customers use the electricity generated by their solar panels rather than buying electricity from their retailer, they save money. When they don’t use all this electricity themselves, the excess amount is exported to the grid, and they may be paid a ‘solar feed-in tariff’ for this electricity.

Since 1990, the carbon emissions of dwellings in the UK have declined by around 20%. This reduction per dwelling is mainly ascribed to the impact of energy efficiency measures, such as improvements in building codes/regulations. In the UK, national energy models of the building stock are used to support the formal cost benefit analysis of policies.

In the global push to lowering our carbon emissions by transitioning to renewable energy production and improving energy efficiency epitomised in the Paris Agreement in 2015, the importance of housing tenure to the adoption of low carbon living, particularly for those on lower incomes, is often not fully appreciated. Lower-income households are more likely to be renters on social benefits, and have limited ability to afford either the normally higher priced energy efficient appliances or access renewables due to the problem of split incentives.

The recent European energy proposals for the revision of the Energy Efficiency and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directives emphasize the importance of driving investments into the renovation of building stocks and stimulating retrofitting demand. Moreover, the ambitious targets on Green House Gas’ abatement and energy consumption reduction require refurbishments to a high level of performance. This high level of performance subsequently represents high cost for households.

This paper focuses on the ex post evaluation of national energy efficiency policy mixes in the building sector, more specifically the effectiveness of implemented policy packages on helping to achieve energy savings and avoided greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). The analysis covers all Policies and Measures (PaMs) affecting heating and cooling of residential buildings. Main research questions are: Is there a relationship between improvements in energy efficiency and GHG mitigation and the PaM history set-up within a Member State (MS)?

This paper on the zero carbon and circular challenge in the built environment puts forward several policy recommendations. In order to achieve the net-zero carbon goal by 2050, adapting the built environment is paramount: the EU estimates that the climate change-related damage to infrastructure could grow tenfold under a business-as-usual scenario. The paper advocates the need to come up with a comprehensive strategy for the building and construction sector which should build on the principles of sustainability and circularity.