scholarly journals Energy efficiency in buildings: Middle-class status as a trigger for the European fight against climate change

European View ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-170
Author(s):  
Iva Svobodová

After signing the COP 21 Paris Agreement, the EU pledged to become the leading force in the transition to a low-carbon economy. To this end, a new legislative package called ‘Clean Energy for All Europeans’ was passed at the end of 2018. By setting targets for the energy transition, the legislation represents both a great challenge and a great opportunity for European society. The package puts energy efficiency and the active participation of consumers at its core, and so does this article. Focusing on the specific role of buildings, the article argues that the package has significantly increased the potential for the middle class to become one of the driving forces behind the energy transition. Because of specific historical and social developments, the middle class has become capable of being and willing to be involved in environmental protection, and the package has given them more tools to be so.

Author(s):  
Muntasir Murshed ◽  
Zahoor Ahmed ◽  
Md Shabbir Alam ◽  
Haider Mahmood ◽  
Abdul Rehman ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Joseph Romm

This chapter will focus on the clean energy revolution and the technologies most widely discussed for a transition to a low carbon economy. It will explore the scale of the energy transition needed to explain why some energy technologies are considered likely to be major...


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 432-440
Author(s):  
Victoria R. Nalule ◽  
Xiaoyi (Shawn) Mu

Access to modern energy such as electricity is key in the economic development of any country, and yet over 600 million people remain with no access to electricity in developing countries. It is true that both renewable energy and fossil fuels are key in the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development (UN SDG) Goal 7 and Goal 1 on energy access and poverty eradication respectively. However, the current global efforts to transition to a low carbon economy, and tackle climate change as stipulated in the SDG 13 and the 2015 Paris Agreement, have created a lot of tension on fossil fuel developments in recent years.This commentary article is presented as a question and answer session aimed at addressing the misconceptions surrounding the achievement of SDG 7 and SDG 13 in this energy transition era. The paper is of interest to oil producing countries. The article follows the various questions raised by policymakers during an online seminar delivered by both the authors entitled, ‘Fossil Fuels in the Energy Transition Era’.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar Lorenzo-Sáez ◽  
José-Vicente Oliver-Villanueva ◽  
Eloina Coll-Aliaga ◽  
Lenin-Guillermo Lemus-Zúñiga ◽  
Victoria Lerma-Arce ◽  
...  

Buildings have become a key source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to the consumption of primary energy, especially when used to achieve thermal comfort conditions. In addition, buildings play a key role for adapting societies to climate change by achieving more energy efficiency. Therefore, buildings have become a key sector to tackle climate change at the local level. However, public decision-makers do not have tools with enough spatial resolution to prioritise and focus the available resources and efforts in an efficient manner. The objective of the research is to develop an innovative methodology based on a geographic information system (GIS) for mapping primary energy consumption and GHG emissions in buildings in cities according to energy efficiency certificates. The developed methodology has been tested in a representative medium-sized city in Spain, obtaining an accurate analysis that shows 32,000 t of CO2 emissions due to primary energy consumption of 140 GWh in residential buildings with high spatial resolution at single building level. The obtained results demonstrate that the majority of residential buildings have low levels of energy efficiency and emit an average of 45 kg CO2/m2. Compared to the national average in Spain, this obtained value is on the average, while it is slightly better at the regional level. Furthermore, the results obtained demonstrate that the developed methodology is able to directly identify city districts with highest potential for improving energy efficiency and reducing GHG emissions. Additionally, a data model adapted to the INSPIRE regulation has been developed in order to ensure interoperability and European-wide application. All these results have allowed the local authorities to better define local strategies towards a low-carbon economy and energy transition. In conclusion, public decision-makers will be supported with an innovative and user-friendly GIS-based methodology to better define local strategies towards a low-carbon economy and energy transition in a more efficient and transparent way based on metrics of high spatial resolution and accuracy.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261091
Author(s):  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Binshuai Li ◽  
Rui Xue ◽  
Chengcheng Wang ◽  
Wei Cao

More voices are calling for a quicker transition towards clean energy. The exploration and exploitation of clean energy such as wind energy and solar energy are effective means to optimise energy structure and improve energy efficiency. To provide in-depth understanding of clean energy transition, this paper utilises a combination of multiple bibliometric mapping techniques, including HistCite, CiteSpace and R Bibliometrix, to conduct a systematic review on 2,191 clean energy related articles obtained from Web of Science (WoS). We identify five current main research streams in the clean energy field, including Energy Transition, Clean Energy and Carbon Emission Policy, Impact of Oil Price on Alternative Energy Stocks, Clean Energy and Economics, and Venture Capital Investments in Clean Energy. Clearly, the effectiveness of policy-driven and market-driven energy transition is an important ongoing debate. Emerging research topics are also discussed and classified into six areas: Clean Energy Conversion Technology and Biomass Energy Utilisation, Optimisation of Energy Generation Technology, Policy-Making in Clean Energy Transition, Impact of Clean Energy Use and Economic Development on Carbon Emissions, Household Use of Clean Energy, and Clean Energy Stock Markets. Accordingly, more and more research attention has been paid to how to improve energy efficiency through advanced clean energy technology, and how to make targeted policies for clean energy transition and energy market development. This article moves beyond the traditional literature review methods and delineates a systematic research agenda for clean energy research, providing research directions for achieving low-carbon development through the clean energy transition.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-303
Author(s):  
S. M. Sirazam Sadekin ◽  
Sayma Zaman ◽  
M. A. Rashid Sarkar ◽  
Md. Altab Hossain

To deal with climate change, low carbon economy is an utmost necessity for the present world. Energy requirement is growing faster exponentially in each decade. Over the long term some of the traditional sources (coal, gas, oil) have become inadequate to meet up the increasing demand. Current consumption rate of fossil fuel will make them extinct by year 2050 to 2100. Based on these facts nuclear power plant is a strategic choice to develop a clean energy. This paper presents - the role of nuclear electricity in low carbon economy. Though nuclear energy can't be called as 'carbon neutral' but it gives rise to much less emission of carbon dioxide than fossil fuels. Comparing with other energy structures, nuclear electricity chain emits a limited amount of greenhouse gas emission. Despite the uncertainty of building future nuclear power plants, this paper further discussed climate policies have larger impact than the policies that are against nuclear electricity production. The safety issue which is a public concern is also discussed here in short.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3683
Author(s):  
Yerasimos Yerasimou ◽  
Marios Kynigos ◽  
Venizelos Efthymiou ◽  
George E. Georghiou

Distributed generation (DG) systems are growing in number, diversifying in driving technologies and providing substantial energy quantities in covering the energy needs of the interconnected system in an optimal way. This evolution of technologies is a response to the needs of the energy transition to a low carbon economy. A nanogrid is dependent on local resources through appropriate DG, confined within the boundaries of an energy domain not exceeding 100 kW of power. It can be a single building that is equipped with a local electricity generation to fulfil the building’s load consumption requirements, it is electrically interconnected with the external power system and it can optionally be equipped with a storage system. It is, however, mandatory that a nanogrid is equipped with a controller for optimisation of the production/consumption curves. This study presents design consideretions for nanogrids and the design of a nanogrid system consisting of a 40 kWp photovoltaic (PV) system and a 50 kWh battery energy storage system (BESS) managed via a central converter able to perform demand-side management (DSM). The implementation of the nanogrid aims at reducing the CO2 footprint of the confined domain and increase its self-sufficiency.


2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binu Parthan ◽  
Marianne Osterkorn ◽  
Matthew Kennedy ◽  
St. John Hoskyns ◽  
Morgan Bazilian ◽  
...  

2010 ◽  
Vol 160-162 ◽  
pp. 1067-1071
Author(s):  
Bao Zhu Sheng ◽  
Xiao Juan Chen

Building material industry which belongs to High-carbon is facing severe challenges and great opportunity when coping with global climatic change. Low-carbon is an inevitable trend that economy grows. Low-carbon economy is the backbone for economic transition and also the right way for people move towards future .By means of structural adjustment and technology innovation building material industry is destined to achieve full vitality in the transition to the low-carbon economy.


2012 ◽  
Vol 253-255 ◽  
pp. 716-719
Author(s):  
Yang Wang ◽  
Yan Chen

Under the circumstances of the increasing energy consumption of buildings, the development and application of building energy efficiency technology have attracted the attention of many people. As one of the important building energy efficiency technologies, roof greening has played a positive role in building a low-carbon and energy-saving society. This paper analyzes the technological characteristics and the formation methods of the roof greening system. It also expounds on the role of roof greening in building energy conservation.


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