Reviewing the new report – Climate Change: Implications for Buildings

Those working globally, regionally or nationally to improve the energy performance of buildings have recognised and tried to explain to a wider audience the importance of having an ambitious approach to such improvements for both new and existing buildings. While one can go on and on about one energy supply source after another, what it comes down to is how we use energy and buildings consume anywhere from 30 to 40 per cent of our overall energy consumption. Those working in the field have shown that very ambitious improvements in the energy use are feasible, can be cost effective in many cases and bring many benefits to the individual users, owners and to society as a whole.

It seems self evident that by starting with how we use energy, there can be a knock on effect of what energy we need. But, our energy policies and energy systems have started by focusing on supply, not demand. That battle is still going on but somehow has not sunk in sufficiently.

The latest evidence on the role of buildings comes from a short summary of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report that came out fairly recently, entitled Climate Change: Implications for Buildings.

Several well-known organisations working on buildings performance teamed-up to provide businesses and policy makers around the world with a short summary of the IPCC‘s Fifth Assessment report, focusing on buildings. Such a report is needed to reach a wider audience globally.

This overview of the key findings stresses the major role of buildings to effectively addressing climate change, and shows that stronger building codes. The main findings are:

• In 2010, the world’s buildings accounted for 32% of global final energy use and 19% of all GHG emissions. Under business-as-usual projections, use of energy in buildings globally could double or even triple by 2050. Drivers include billions of people acquiring adequate housing and access to electricity.

• Widespread implementation of best practices and technologies could see energy use in buildings stabilise or even fall by 2050. Many mitigation options promise multiple co-benefits.

• Many barriers exist to greater uptake of energy-saving opportunities, including poor market transparency, limited access to capital and risk aversion. But know-how exists on retrofitting and how to build very low- and zero-energy buildings, often at little marginal investment cost; and there is a broad portfolio of effective policy instruments available to remove barriers to uptake.

• The very long life-cycles of buildings create risks of energy use ‘lock-in’ with the effects of low ambition today playing out for decades. Using state-of-the-art standards immediately, for both new and retrofit buildings, would alleviate this hazard.

• Buildings face major risks of damage from the projected impacts of climate change, having already experienced a big increase in extreme weather damage in recent decades. There is likely to be significant regional variation in the intensity and nature of such impacts.

It is important to stress that there is major potential for energy savings of up to 50–90% in existing and new buildings. Exploiting this potential more widely requires sustained policies and actions that address all aspects of the design, construction, and operation of buildings and their equipment, as well as changing user behaviours and attitudes. For developed countries, scenarios indicate that lifestyle and behavioural changes could reduce energy demand by up to 20% in the short term and by up to 50% of present levels by 2050.

This summary is one of a series of thirteen based upon The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the IPCC. AR5 represents the most comprehensive overview of climate science to date and is the fact base that will be used by governments and businesses to formulate climate policy in the coming years.

The report is very readable and gives you in a short, concise manner the arguments why there is a need to shake up energy and climate policies to give the necessary priority to the buildings sector. The days of lip service from politicians and decision-makers must come to an end.

The report is available on the BPIE website [http://bpie.eu/ipcc_buildings.html#.U7Pj6S-NiVx]

Now what does it take to effect change? Let’s start here.