Inspiration catalogue
The need to combat climate change is high on the agenda all over the world. However, the road is long. The EU has a goal of cutting 20 % of its energy consumption and CO2 emissions on 1990 levels before 2020.
In Europe and the US, some 40 % of all energy consumption is used in buildings. Therefore, as building owners – or users – we need to take action. As a society in general, we also need to adopt policies that help people to do the right thing. Not only on state level, but also on regional, country and municipal level. This places a big responsibility on politicians worldwide to develop policies to combat climate change.
What is done?
According to EuroACE (European Alliance of Companies for Energy Efficiency in Buildings), the most common political initiatives to obtain energy efficiency include:
- Loans with low interest rates to financelow energy buildings
- Lower taxes for low energy buildings
- Simplified heating billing requirements
- No obligation to take public heat supply
- CO2 taxes
- Legislation
- Certification or labelling of low energy buildings
See the examples
In this section you can find a range of examples of what is being done on different political levels around the world:
- France’s energy renovation of 40 million public buildings
- Germany’s favourable loans for energy savings
- Stenløse South - a Danish municipality developing Europe’s largest low energy area
- Vermont’s way to become the greenest state in the US
- The United Kingdom’s fight against fuel poverty
