EESI Highlights Urgency of Climate Change, Building Efficiency as Fast Solution

On November 24, President Obama’s Science Advisor John Holdren and the journal Innovations hosted the “Time for Change: Reframing the Conversation on Energy and Climate” symposium at the National Academy of Sciences. The event, timed two weeks before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, showcased the importance of acting today to begin reducing the carbon dioxide emissions that cause climate change and the benefits of transitioning to a low carbon economy. Speakers emphasized how available technologies and common-sense policies will create jobs, advance innovation, and enhance opportunities for business, the United States, and the global community of nations.

At the symposium, EESI's policy director Ellen Vaughan moderated a discussion that highlighted the enormous potential in the built environment to quickly reduce energy use and carbon emissions. The panel, which included Ralph Cavanagh of the Natural Resources Defense Council, James Turner of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and Henry Green of the National Institute of Building Sciences, emphasized the need for polices and leadership to stimulate a market for energy efficient buildings and the importance of holistic, integrated strategies for achieving energy efficiency in both new and existing buildings.

This panel was based on the article “Moving Toward High-Performance Buildings,” which Vaughan coauthored with Turner and buildings expert Colin McCormick for Innovations’ special energy and climate edition. The article details several ways to rapidly improve energy efficiency in buildings. Federal buildings should be retrofitted to demonstrate the feasibility of efficiency technologies. State and national building codes need to be updated to include stricter energy performance standards. In addition to mandatory codes, higher voluntary standards similar to the Swiss Minergie system could further drive the market for high performance buildings. Financial policies could be designed to encourage home and building owners to retrofit existing buildings. One promising new policy being applied at the local level is the property-assessed clean energy (PACE) bond, which allows homeowners to repay municipal loans for retrofitting their homes through their property taxes.

“Key technologies for significant efficiency gains in buildings are already available and cost effective,” the article states, “and achieving major improvements in energy use in the building sector could buy us time to improve building technology further and to make breakthroughs in other sectors.”