The German government has proposed a system of energy efficiency ratings for buildings as the EU pushes its Energy Efficiency Action Plan to help meet its ambitious target to cut greenhouse emissions by 20 per cent by 2020.

Energy efficiency and demand-side energy management measures are increasingly being seen as the sleeping giant of carbon abatement.

Earlier this year, a McKinsey study called for more emphasis on energy efficiency in buildings finding that a quarter of all practical, cost-effective emission reductions possible over the coming decades come from things like better insulation - at zero net economic cost long term.

And a UN Environment Programme report last month said the building sector worldwide could deliver emission reductions of 1.8 billion tonnes of CO2 - more than twice the savings that would result from reduction measures under Kyoto Protocol.

EU nations must submit their energy-efficiency action plans to Brussels in the next few months and ministers have met with G8 counterparts to develop strategies.

Germany’s Transport, Building and Urban Affairs minister, Wolfgang Tiefensee, proposed a mandatory certification system for commercial and residential buildings that outline their energy usage and costs to buyers and tenants.

Tiefensee said laws requiring certificates stating heating and hot water costs for homes and offices on the market would go before Cabinet and could be in place by the end of the year. This would be followed by new laws next year requiring minimum energy efficiency standards in new and renovated buildings.

European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs supported the proposals.

Wolfgang Kusch, president of Germany’s national weather service DWD says architects will have to rise to the challenge of climate change.

“German cities will become increasingly 'heat islands' and there will be a growing need for fresh air corridors into cities,” Reuters reports Kush as saying. “Architects must come up with new plans, such as creating more shade and using heat-resistant materials.”

EurActiv 23/4/07, Reuters 24/4/07

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