Energy Efficiency in Buildings

Is the US at last waking up on climate change?

The eminent American economist Jeffrey Sachs announced this week: “Climate change is not only an issue for the future. It is a critical issue of the present”. 

Well, Europeans have been saying that for years, but Jeffrey was talking about the US. He opened a meeting I was at in New York by saying that there has been a sea change in the US in attitudes to the climate change issue. 

I was taking part in the Global Roundtable on Climate Change. It was organized by the Earth Institute of Columbia University (where Jeffrey is director), which may seem a little odd until you realize that buildings use 40% of all primary energy. 

It was easy enough to believe in climate change as soon as I landed at JFK. Snow-clearing machines were lined up idle along the runway. It was like early spring – 59 degrees (about 15ºC). So warm that people were eating outside – when they could tear themselves away from shopping. It was the last Sunday Christmas shopping day. But what a circus! Most people I know hate shopping but the Americans seem to love it…. what a footprint! 

If you're cold: Use heaters, not light bulbs!

It’s windy and rainy in Brussels. Looks like the winter is finally coming. But only after a long and exceptionally warm autumn. And what is likely to be another “hottest year ever”. You can’t help thinking about Climate change.

I am in Brussels where Philips is launching an initiative for efficient lighting technology. It’s an important aspect of making buildings energy efficient because so much electricity is used for lighting in homes, offices and (especially) shops and restaurants – and so much of it is wasted.

Harry Verhaar has been telling me all about it. He is Philips’ director for Energy & Climate Change and he has convinced me what can be achieved with the latest technology. We can have better lighting but radically reduce the use of energy. 

A passport to low energy. But which route?

In Paris last week, experts from all over the world seemed to agree: we know how to make buildings more energy efficient, but we don’t know how to make it happen.

I was at a workshop on Energy Efficiency in Buildings at the International Energy Agency's building conference. It will feed in to the IEA's recommendations for the G8 meeting in Japan 2008.

Buildings might not seem as important as cars, aircraft or power stations. But they already account for 40% of the world’s primary energy use. And if things carry on as now, buildings will consume more energy than transport and industry together in 2050. That is not sustainable.