The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released a report over the weekend to delegates at the climate change talks in Poland, outlining the huge, untapped potential of the building and construction sector for combating climate change.
Energy use in buildings accounts for one-third of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide, but as of October 2008, only ten out of an estimated 4,000 projects in the pipeline of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)–the main international carbon market scheme under the Kyoto Protocol–seek to reduce this energy usage.
This is despite the fact that the sector has the largest potential for cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions responsible for global warming. Up to 30% cut in baseline emissions from residential and commercial buildings can be achieved by 2030 at a net negative cost, according to the results of over 80 surveys worldwide quoted in the new report.
"Report after report is now underlining the huge, cost-effective savings possible from addressing emissions from existing buildings alongside designing new ones that include passive and active solar up to low energy heating and cooling systems and energy efficient appliances," said UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. "Indeed the built environment is at the nexus of green growth and a global Green Economy in terms of green jobs, innovation, a more resource efficient world and the chance for citizens and communities to live a low, even zero emission life-style."
"The Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol has been one creative answer to the climate change challenge, kick-starting renewable energy projects while triggering ones to harvest fuels like methane from landfills and gas flaring. But the CDM could evolve into an even more creative mechanism, able to spark climate friendly buildings and construction alongside transportation and low carbon city-wide schemes," he added.
Greening the Construction Boom
Greenhouse gas emissions from buildings worldwide are set to increase sharply over the next two decades, mainly due to construction booms in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
Estimated at 8.6 billion tonnes in 2004, building-related GHG emissions could almost double by 2030 to reach 15.6 billion tons under the high-growth scenario, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
At the same time, today’s commercially available technologies make it possible to halve energy consumption in both new and old buildings without significant investment, says the UNEP report, titled The Kyoto Protocol, The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and the Building and Construction Sector.
Simple measures such as improved ventilation and insulation, increased use of natural lighting, the use of energy efficiency appliances and lighting alongside the use of solar and other natural heat sources, can save energy and costs.
Up to 90% of the energy a building uses during its entire life cycle is consumed for heating, cooling, lighting and other appliances. The remaining 10% is consumed during the construction, material manufacturing and demolition phases.
Six years after the inception of the CDM, only a handful of building projects have managed to enter the CDM pipeline, and nearly half of them were rejected during the registration phase.
As a result, the CDM’s contribution to reducing GHG emissions in the building sector is almost non-existent, and the vast energy-saving potential of the sector remains virtually untapped, says the report.
CDM Reform
The report puts forward a number of recommendations to reinforce the CDM and other mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol aimed at boosting the role of the building and construction sector in combating climate change.
The recommendations include:
- developing national regulations and standards for building energy efficiency and/or sustainable building
- developing common baselines and building benchmarks for the CDM
- developing evaluation tools for building energy efficiency and CDM projects
- engaging the financial sector
More specifically, the report calls replacing direct and constant monitoring with sampling to allow more projects to get underway worldwide without such heavy-handed control.
It also suggests encouraging CDM projects aimed at providing sufficient energy to meet the basic needs of the poor, for instance by issuing carbon credits for "avoided emissions" and allowing generation of carbon credits in projects which aim to meet national standards for energy efficiency in buildings.
The report is available at the link below.
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