Buildings & Climate Change Think Tank Reviews the CDM

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 Building on the success of the Buildings and Climate Change report, the SBCI Think Tank on Climate Change is working in partnership with UNEP’s Risoe Centre for Energy Efficiency and Climate Change in Denmark, to investigate opportunities for the building sector to participate in the Kyoto and post-Kyoto frameworks for greenhouse emissions reductions.

The research to date indicates that despite the construction and operation of buildings contributing up to 40% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, in its current form the Kyoto Protocol provides no effective mechanisms to encourage the participation of the building sector in cutting emissions. An example of this failure is the poor representation and success of building related energy efficiency projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Of the 131 EE projects registered under the CDM, only 14 relate to buildings with just two projects approved (SBCI, 2007). The protocol beyond 2012 will fail unless it enables the building sector to create markets in efficiency and emissions cuts.

Recently the IPCC identified the building sector as holding the most potential for emissions reductions. They argue that with wide spread adoption of energy efficiency measures up to 30% of base-line building-related CO2 emissions projected for 2020 could be avoided at no cost or with cost savings to the sector (IPCC, 2006). In many developed countries the sector has already explored the business potential of energy efficiency and high environmental performance through voluntary schemes such as green-building rating.

While some major development companies and public sector clients are now committed to reducing emissions in their building projects, this represents a tiny fraction of mainstream building activity, most of which is occurring in China and India with few, if any tangible commitment to energy efficiency. The post Kyoto protocol, must provide a market-based platform that provides incentives for widespread and rapid transformation of the building sector. New mechanisms must cater to the needs of the building sector in order for the post Kyoto protocol to be effective. In particular, it must assist the building sector to seize the opportunities presented by the increasing carbon constraint (cost of carbon).

SBCI with Partners the Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Building & Construction, the WBCSD and WGBC will raise awareness of the significance of building-related greenhouse emissions and the need for reform of the CDM to the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting in Bali in December.

More information contact the Think Tank Chair: Stéphane Pouffary – email: stephane.pouffary@ademe.fr