Buildings Can Combat Climate Change, Report Says

Hurdles include the traditional incandescent light bulb.

by Mairi Beautyman -- Interior Design, 4/5/2007

According to a new report released by the United Nations Environment Program Sustainable Building and Construction Initiative (UNEP SBCI), energy efficient buildings can make a significant difference when it comes to fighting global warming. Titled Buildings and Climate Change: Status, Challenges and Opportunities, the report is supported by sustainable construction organization the U..S. Green Building Council. The report targets the building sector, which is responsible for up to 40 percent of global energy use.
Improvement, the report says, is the right mix of appropriate government regulation, greater use of energy saving technologies, and behavioral change. Meeting these factors can reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the building sector—up to 45 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2010—and cut energy consumption by more than one-fifth.

“Energy efficiency, along with cleaner and renewable forms of energy generation, is one of the pillars upon which a de-carbonized world will stand or fall," says Achim Steiner, UN under-secretary general and UNEP executive director. "The savings that can be made right now are potentially huge and the costs to implement them relatively low if sufficient numbers of governments, industries, businesses and consumers act."

Steiner says the sustainable campaign will be challenged by hurdles including the traditional incandescent light bulb, which is on its way out in countries including Australia and Cuba, and in the European Union.

Copies of the report are available at the UNEP SBCI.