Buildings and Climate Change: a Summary for Decision Makers, the latest UNEP-SBCI report, highlights the potential of more efficient buildings in addressing climate change. The report argues that a failure to encourage more energy-efficient and low-carbon buildings will lock countries into the disadvantages of poor performing buildings for decades, and states that governments will fail to meet emission reduction targets if they exclude the building sector. This sector has the highest potential of all to deliver greenhouse gas emissions cuts, at the least cost, using available and mature technologies!

The Call to Action is available for download here!

We encourage your organisation to download and consider supporting 'The Call'. Our global network of stakeholders has chosen to support this important document. SBCI has held a side-event at the UNFCCC negotiation meetings in Bonn in early June 2009 to launch the Call. This call is part of the advocacy documents we have prepared for meetings with country delegations throughout the year.
This is your chance to have your voice heard in Copenhagen! Contact the Secretariat (sbci@unep.org) to support the Call!

On 24th April our official UNEP SBCI submission to UNFCCC's Additional Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) was officially dispatched.  This submission functions as a place holder for texts to be developed under the Copenhagen Agreement in relation to the building sector. It is directly aligned with the draft Call for Action and essentially builds on the work of SBCI over the past three years.

UNEP-SBCI proposes that emission reduction in buildings is recognized as an appropriate area for NAMA (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action) and that the development of frameworks required to monitor, report and verify such actions are included in a post-2012 Agreement.

One of the UNEP-SBCI’s key objectives is to ensure that Parties to the Kyoto Protocol have the information needed to promote energy efficiency improvements in buildings. SBCI conducted research and investigated the current CDM project development environment in the building sector. The results of this research were published as a UNEP report in December 2008 (the UNEP-SBCI CDM report). The main findings and recommendations of the report are further summarized for this submission. UNEP-SBCI is well placed to facilitate and support the implementation of a number of these recommendations.

Despite the obvious need and opportunities for reducing energy consumption in buildings, the potential remains largely untapped in most countries. Out of more than 3,000 Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in the pipeline (as of May 2008) only six seek to reduce energy demand in buildings.

In addition, within the six projects, only one is today generating Certified Emission Reduction credits (CERs). Thus CDM is apparently not having any impact on this sector, which has been identified as offering the greatest potential for greenhouse gas emission reductions. This study has identified main reasons for this situation and makes recommendations to enable Energy Efficient Building Projects to be better supported under the CDM.

Worldwide, 30-40% of all primary energy is used in buildings. While in high- and middle-income countries this is mostly achieved with fossil fuels, biomass is still the dominant energy source in low-income regions. In different ways, both patterns of energy consumption are environmentally intensive, contributing to global warming. Without proper policy interventions and technological improvements, these patterns are not expected to change in the near future.
On the global level, knowledge regarding the energy use of building stocks is still lagging be-hind. Generally speaking, the residential sector accounts for the major part of the energy consumed in buildings; in developing countries the share can be over 90%. Nevertheless, the energy consumption in non-residential buildings, such as offices and public buildings and hospitals, is also significant.

The building sector has a considerable potential for positive change, to become more efficient in terms of resource use, less environmentally intensive and more profitable. Sustainable buildings can also be used as a mitigating opportunity for greenhouse gas emissions under the flexible mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol and should be considered as a key issue for the post Kyoto period.

Buildings contribute on average to 30% of energy use in society causing similar levels of associated greenhouse gas emissions.

There are many proven ways to reduce the energy use in new and existing buildings but experience shows that this will not happen without intervention from policy makers. This study presents the qualitative and quantitative experiences from different kinds of policy tools applied in countries all around the world. The study reviews 20 different tools into four main categories: Regulatory and control instruments; Economic and market based instruments; Fiscal instruments and incentives; and Support, information and voluntary action.

This report provides an assessment and summary of their effect in terms of efficiency, effect on emission reduction, cost effectiveness and lessons learned. This study also includes a database presented in 34 tables with detailed data provided on each instrument applied in each country. Based on the database, an analysis with recommendations is provided.

Also available: Brochure with a summary of conclusions and recommendations!

The Tsunami disaster of 26 December 2004 affected a dozen Indian Ocean countries, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and Maldives, Malaysia and Myanmar,with a death toll reportedly exceeding 250,000 and millions of more left homeless. Survivors found shelter in temporary barracks and tents. Since then, there has been a pressing need to provide survivors with adequate permanent housing.

In the aftermath of the disaster, numerous agencies have responded by reconstructing houses and infrastructure. Project managers, however, are often overwhelmed not only by the magnitude of required activities but also by the extent of challenges related to reconstruction.

One of the main challenges is to ensure conceptually sound, robust and practical reconstruction solutions that will minimise the environmental impact. This manual addresses that challenge by providing project managers with guidance in various aspects of sustainable reconstruction, including planning, design, materials, implementation, and maintenance.