Without strong and ambitious policy support, the energy efficiency potential of cities is likely to remain largely untapped. Often cities have the opportunity to implement policies and programmes in the building sector that are complementary, more stringent or reflect greater ambition than national activities. 

In order to maximize the effectiveness of energy efficiency actions, it is important for local policy-makers and stakeholder to utilize planning and policy tools available to cities in their policy development efforts. Numerous analytical tools and resources in the field of buildings energy efficiency are available, ranging from global- and city-scale inventories and target-setting guidance to individual building energy performance assessments.

To map the existing range of tools and to facilitate building energy efficiency improvements, this working paper presents an overview and categorization of current tools, as well as offers a decision tree, illustrating the types of tools policy and project development in the field of energy efficiency in buildings.

This working paper aims at guiding local policy-makers, technical experts and other relevant stakeholders through the key steps of the policy and project development process through utilisation of publically available tools, helping them to navigate among various information sources on energy efficiency in buildings.