IEA urges to overcome market barriers to increased energy efficiency in buildings

Existing buildings are responsible for over 40% of the world?s energy consumption and an impressive amount could be saved by applying energy-efficient technologies and practices. This is one of the conclusions of the latest IEA publication entitled ?Promoting Energy Efficiency Investments: Case Studies in the Residential Sector?.

The new International Energy Agency (IEA) publication, prepared in collaboration with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), draws on experiences in Japan, the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom providing illustrations of policies and measures to improve energy efficiency in existing residential buildings.

Each case includes relevant background and contextual information, as well as an evaluation of each policy according to five-predefined criteria: relevance, effectiveness, flexibility, clarity and sustainability.

The market barriers inhibiting increased energy efficiency in residential buildings take many forms. They include difficulties in accessing capital, low priority of energy issues, the presence of information asymmetries and principal-agent problems - or split incentives between investors and energy end-users (e.g. between a landlord and a tenant.

The book draws five policy lessons from these experiences. First, given that financial barriers in the residential building sector are numerous and complex, multi-policy packages are needed to address multiple barriers at the same time. Second, public-private partnerships offer the best opportunity to meet the five evaluation criteria. Third, the creation of a market for energy efficiency is necessary to increase sustainable energy efficiency in the building sector. Fourth, market transformation will require increased private sector involvement, which must be triggered by strong political will to create the necessary conditions. Lastly, the national context plays a determining role in the success or failure of policies.

Promoting Energy Efficiency Investments also identifies the crucial need for more systematic data collection on programmes implemented; such data is currently scarce and renders policy analysis and comparisons between countries more difficult.

By: www.energetica21.com

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