Energy Use and CO2 Emissions

Reducing energy demand and CO2 emissions caused by human activity is a major challenge worldwide. For an international real estate investor and developer like Redevco, energy use and the associated CO2 emissions is a key environmental issue.

Buildings account for more than 40% of global energy demand and 30% of the world’s carbon emissions. This fact has been recognised by the European Commission, which has adopted a binding target that renewable energy should account for 20% of energy consumption by 2020. Other targets that have been adopted are a 20% increase in energy efficiency and a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Accordingly, the forthcoming EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive will require that all new buildings must be ‘nearly zero energy’ by 2020. Since the vast majority of existing buildings will still be standing in 2020, the existing built environment is key to the success of the EU objective of reducing carbon emissions. Furthermore, climate change may affect the buildings we own, so we need to adapt them to more extreme weather patterns, more frequent flooding and so on.

To read the entire chapter of this key issue, please view the entire report.