TY - GEN
T1 - Non-residential buildings for combating climate change
T2 - Summary of the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
AU - Novikova, Aleksandra
AU - Ürge-Vorsatz, Diana
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - The challenge of climate change calls to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible to avoid irreversible damage to the Planet. The non-residential buildings sector is one of the targets for these emission reductions. The paper presents the key conclusions of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change on mitigation opportunities in the buildings sector with a focus on the non-residential buildings. A wide array of mature and emerging technologies can supply the substantial reductions in carbon emissions from energy use in the non-residential buildings. The analyzed literature attests that a significant portion of these emission savings is cost-effective in the short and medium term future. Numerous co-benefits take place while implementing GHG mitigation options in the non-residential buildings and provide significant value beyond direct saved costs of energy. If financially evaluated, these co-benefits help policymakers justify actions even in the absence of a strong climate commitment. A variety of government policies have been demonstrated in many countries to be successful in reducing energyrelated carbon emissions in buildings. However, due to probably the highest, among energy use sectors, barriers for efficiency penetration in buildings, no single instrument can make a large impact. Therefore, packages of policy tools, which benefit from a synergy of advantages of individual instruments, tailored to local conditions, and combined with strong compliance and enforcement regimes, are needed.
AB - The challenge of climate change calls to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible to avoid irreversible damage to the Planet. The non-residential buildings sector is one of the targets for these emission reductions. The paper presents the key conclusions of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change on mitigation opportunities in the buildings sector with a focus on the non-residential buildings. A wide array of mature and emerging technologies can supply the substantial reductions in carbon emissions from energy use in the non-residential buildings. The analyzed literature attests that a significant portion of these emission savings is cost-effective in the short and medium term future. Numerous co-benefits take place while implementing GHG mitigation options in the non-residential buildings and provide significant value beyond direct saved costs of energy. If financially evaluated, these co-benefits help policymakers justify actions even in the absence of a strong climate commitment. A variety of government policies have been demonstrated in many countries to be successful in reducing energyrelated carbon emissions in buildings. However, due to probably the highest, among energy use sectors, barriers for efficiency penetration in buildings, no single instrument can make a large impact. Therefore, packages of policy tools, which benefit from a synergy of advantages of individual instruments, tailored to local conditions, and combined with strong compliance and enforcement regimes, are needed.
M3 - Conference contribution
SN - 9789279159954
VL - 1
T3 - JRC Scientific and Technical Reports
SP - 3
EP - 19
BT - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Improving Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings
A2 - Bertoldi, Paolo
A2 - Atanasiu, Bogdan
PB - Publications Office of the European Union
ER -
