Energy Efficiency Coalition to Enforce Standards Globally
Vienna, 15.02.2008
In February 2008, the Mexican environment minister announced that 30,000 environmentally-friendly homes are to be built by 2011. The new housing is to be equipped with smart devices like solar water heating, low-energy lighting, high-efficiency appliances and low-flow plumbing fixtures. This pioneering project is to be rolled out in subsequent years as Mexico’s plan for 20 million new homes over the next 20 years starts to unfold, using new building standards to allow energy efficient construction to be applied consistently in each housing development.
That, at least, is the vision. But Horst Biedermann, chair of the new Energy Efficiency Coalition (EEC), has seen this type of plan too many times before. “Very often the local building codes and standards should be applied but are not,” he asserts. Too often, energy efficiency policies are weakened by industry practice or split incentives. That is one reason why he, alongside representatives from over a dozen other energy, environmental and governmental organisations across the world have formed EEC, a group whose work has been funded initially by insulation companies. EEC is set on a mission unlike any other in the field.
The member organisations, which range from the Ghana Energy Commission to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to building products company St. Gobain-Isover, want to stop all the talk about energy efficiency, which they feel has gone on for too long: studies, policies and strategies. EEC believes that most of the technologies are already available and that policy makers know what needs to be done to cut energy use and emissions. The group is not aiming to do any major legal or technical research. The problems holding this sector’s development back are related to communication, finance and everyday behaviour.
Thus its members want to see the policies, building codes and other innovations take root at ground level. To all the EEC members, a very evident gap between political discussions and actual implementation has opened up, which they want to close. In most cases, the codes are there but the compliance is not. In others, there are no codes in the first place. EEC wants to address both of these scenarios. “We have to reinforce action,” says Biedermann. China is a particularly strong focus for the group, which is managed as a branch of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), a global consortium that works to break down technical, market and financial barriers to clean and efficient energy. EEC will play a similar role to REN21, a well-established renewable energy activist group.
Biedermann points to the extraordinary figure that half the whole world’s new build will be in China, according to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA). “If all those buildings have no energy efficiency built into them it’s ridiculous. We want to help the Chinese institutions in this area and hope they will join the coalition,” he states.
To start the campaign off, the group is going to complete an audit of what exactly is in place in which country, in order to create a benchmark and set targets and priorities for action. While some of this information is already available, it is in different places and among different organisations. For instance, Germany’s progress on building codes is well publicised: the German government is tightening energy efficiency standards by 30% and wants to tighten them by another 30% in 2012. On the other hand, there are huge holes in the data on many developing countries.
EEC wants to bring all this together in a global status report to help create a roadmap for pushing the energy savings through, showing how and where to break down barriers holding innovation back. It will consider the G8 +5 countries as well as prominent developing nations and will be produced by consultancy Ecofys. The report will be delivered to a high level audience at this year’s G8 summit in Japan. All of the G8 members bar Russia are partners to the REEEP and it was listed as a “delivery mechanism” for energy efficiency in buildings at the 2005 Gleneagles G8 summit after being promoted by former UK prime minister Tony Blair.
While EEC will focus on the buildings sector in the first phase, it will then move on to energy efficiency in industry and push for further action on the factory floor. Mexico will be EEC’s first stop and China will follow soon after. But Biedermann is not confining the group’s tactics to public relations or engagement with governments and industry. “We want enforcement and compliance with legislation,” he says.
One way to achieve this could be to put greater pressure on different trade organisations such as architects and building contractors. “Enforcement can only be done via legislation. If it turns out that an energy efficiency measure has not been put into place, you could get the architect responsible. You could create penalties.”