Green Economy Specialist
In this video, Marina Economidou explains the significance of green buildings and their role in transitioning towards a green economy and also discusses the challenges and concerns around investment in green buildings.
In this video, Marina Economidou explains the significance of green buildings and their role in transitioning towards a green economy and also discusses the challenges and concerns around investment in green buildings.
Climate proofing buildings must be at the core of our efforts and “green buildings” are vital in this process. A green building is a building that greatly reduces its negative impact on our climate and natural environment and it does so throughout the life cycle. Unfortunately, current green building renovation and practices are far below the Paris Agreement targets and most of these efforts are not cost-optimal. It is essential to overcome these challenges and drive further investment into green buildings.
Key learning objectives:
Understand what are green buildings
Understand the importance of green buildings
Identify the barriers to investing in green buildings
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Green buildings represent a major global investment opportunity and are vital to reach climate goals. Globally, buildings are responsible for more than a third of global carbon emissions, and 40% of the energy we use. Green buildings preserve precious natural resources, use very little energy and provide services at the lowest operational costs and highest quality and in addition to these benefits, they create jobs, support local businesses and have a social and well-being dimension too. Characteristics of green buildings are:
1. Efficient use of energy, water and resources
2. Building integrated renewable energy technologies
3. Use of sustainable materials
4. Measures to reduce pollution & waste
5. Measures to improve indoor environment and thermal comfort
Now, rather than building entirely new buildings there are measures and technologies we have that can be used to make existing buildings greener. This is really important, because a high proportion of existing buildings will still be standing in 2050. To reach minimum targets defined in the Paris Agreement, rates of basic green renovations of existing buildings in these countries must reach 6-8% by 2040.
Existing buildings can be greened by techniques and practices such as insulation, installation of roof solar panels, triple glazed windows, heat pumps, energy management systems, smart appliances, heat exchangers, passive measures, just to name a few.
The approach to introduce energy efficiency measures in buildings comprises of 3 steps:
The main barriers are institutional and regulatory barriers, financial barriers and general barriers.
Institutional and regulatory barriers include the regulatory framework not being strong enough. Financial barriers include access to finance, upfront costs of renovations, payback expectations, price signals and perceived high risks. General barriers include a fragmented building industry, lack of skilled labour, lack of access to technologies and a lack of competition in certain countries, especially in central Asia. Solutions to overcoming barriers include working with regulators to close any policy gaps, establishing a better use of public funds, guarantee facilities, setting up one stop shops, bundling projects to reduce transaction costs, engaging with energy service companies and energy performance contracting and using innovative financial models
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