Energy labelling
The houses that are being built today will still be standing in 50 - 60 years or more. By that time, the global CO2 emissions should have been reduced by 85 percent. According to the research institute Ecofys, the EU could save 460 million tonnes of CO2 per year if all buildings being renovated were to be upgraded to current energy efficiency standards. This is as much as the total annual emissions of Italy.
Many initiatives to cut energy consumption in buildings are inexpensive. It is also not necessarily more expensive to build better. An effective way to sharpen the focus on energy use in buildings is to introduce energy labels, or certificates like we have on appliances. Energy certificates for houses are well established in the EU and will be introduced in Norway in 2010. Under the new law, all houses that are sold or rented must have a certificate rating the energy consumption class on a scale from A to G. The certificates, or grades, will give homeowners a better idea of their energy use, thus leading to energy savings. If you are building a new house, it is worth knowing that energy grade B involves reduction of energy consumption by a quarter without costing appreciably more than a building with a far poorer energy rating. Achieving energy grade A involves a more expensive construction process, but the resulting energy savings will more than pay for the extra cost in the long run.
For new buildings, laws and regulations are the best way to create new standards and provide a long term and predictable framework. If one is to fulfill the full energy efficiency potential of existing buildings, then subsidies and/or other incentives are necessary to encourage initiatives such as additional wall and loft insulation, installation of heat pumps or replacement of windows.
Governments need to lead by example. Building regulations could be stricter for public buildings than for private ones, since many buildings are publicly owned. This would influence the rest of the building trade, encourage new technology and increase the skills of architects, engineers and builders. But the public sector lacks incentives to reduce energy consumption. Investment budgets are separate from operational budgets and lower energy costs reduce operating budgets. In France, 12 percent of the building volume in the entire country is publicly owned, and the French government has decided that it will double the number of old buildings to be renovated every year. This means that 400,000 buildings a year will have their energy loss and CO2 emissions reduced, saving the tax payers large sums over many years.
