Investment has grown rapidly in China in recent years, reaching more than 40 percent of GDP. Despite good progress on bank and enterprise reforms, weaknesses remain that could contribute to inefficient investment decisions. Manufacturing, infrastructure, and real estate have been the drivers of...

Vast amounts of the European residential stock were built with limited consideration for energy efficiency, yet its refurbishment can help reach national energy reduction goals, decreasing environmental impact. Short-term retrofits with reduced interference to inhabitants can be achieved by...

In this paper, we identify key drivers and barriers for the adoption of building energy retro fits in Germany, which is promoted by public policy as an important measure to address the future challenges of climate change and energy security. We analyze data from a 2009 survey of more than 400...

Residential buildings strongly contribute to global CO2 emissions due to the high energy demand for electricity and heating, particularly in industrialised countries. Within the EU, decentralised heat generation is of particular relevance for future climate policy, as its emissions are not...

Residential buildings strongly contribute to global CO2 emissions due to the high energy demand for electricity and heating, particularly in industrialised countries. Within the EU, decentralised heat generation is of particular relevance for future climate policy, as its emissions are not...

The political discussion on energy efficiency is focusing more and more on the building sector due to its susceptibility to potential market failures like the negative external pollution effects of CO2 emission. Using a discrete choice approach, this paper aims at deriving factors which increase...

There is currently a lack of harmonization in the building energy efficiency requirements that are mandated by different countries. Energy efficiency is defined by the energy yield of the facilities and by the envelope energy losses. These energy losses are mainly conditioned by the thermal...

The German government has committed to reducing the primary energy demand of buildings by 80% by 2050. Achieving this reduction will require foremost efficiency improvements, with a first milestone of a 20% reduction in heat demand levels by 2020. Given that about 80% of today’s building stock...

The impact of environmental regulation on technology diffusion and innovations is studied using a unique data set of German residential buildings. We analyze how energy efficiency regulations, in terms of minimum standards, affects energy-use in newly constructed buildings and how it induces...

We examine the design of regulatory policy to induce electric utilities to deliver the surplus-maximizing level of energy efficiency services, <InlineEquation ID="IEq1"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">$$e^{*}$$</EquationSource> </InlineEquation>. The rebound effect (whereby increased energy efficiency stimulates the demand for energy) typically renders revenue decoupling insufficient...</equationsource></inlineequation>