Towards additional policies to improve the environmental performance of ...
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Posting Date | 25 December 2009Publication Date | 2009
Country | EU Institutions
Geographic Coverage | International
Theme | Environmental issues related to buildings, Energy policies, Building envelope (walls, windows,...), Energy efficiency technologies and materials, General, Socio-economics and finances related to energy conservation and renewable energy in buildings, Building operation, monitoring, energy management
Type of publication | Report
Publisher | European Commission - Joint Research Centre
Number pages | 155
Submitted by Andreas Uihlein
Source Languages | English
Towards additional policies to improve the environmental performance of buildings. Part II: Quantitative assessment
This report supports EU policymaking on sustainable consumption and production in the area of buildings. Various policies exist or have been proposed to improve the energy efficiency and thus the environmental performance of buildings. They address mainly new buildings and major renovations of existing buildings. Previous research has shown that there is the potential for additional policies to lead to further reductions in the environmental impacts. Improving the energy efficiency of elements such as windows and roofs was identified as potential main target of such additional policies. This report presents the quantitative assessment of the possible environmental and socio-economic effects of such policy measures. Two types of measures addressing the energy efficiency of building elements are assessed: 1) requiring high thermal insulation levels when individual building elements have to be renovated, and 2) accelerating the retrofitting of individual building elements according to high energy efficiency standards. The results of the modelling show that additional policies could deliver further savings of energy and greenhouse gas emissions and that the socio-economic benefits would outweigh the costs.
See also Part I of this study "Towards additional policies to improve the environmental performance of buildings" at http://www.buildup.eu/publications/6921. It reviews the barriers towards energy efficiency and the measures to overcome. It then compiles an overview over existing and planned EU policy instruments dealing with the environmental and energy performance of buildings, building elements and equipment. Finally, barriers, available measures and policy instruments are assessed against each other to find out what more could be done and to assess if there are additional policies to the existing ones that could lead to further improvements.
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