Policy Pathway - Modernising Building Energy Codes 2013

Buildings are the largest consumers of energy worldwide and will continue to be a source of increasing energy demand in the future. Globally, the sector’s final energy consumption doubled between 1971 and 2010 to reach 2 794 Mtoe, driven primarily by population increase and economic growth. Under current policies, the global energy demand of buildings is projected by IEA experts to grow by an additional 838 Mtoe by 2035 compared to 2010. The challenges of the projected increase of energy consumption due to the built environment vary by country. In IEA member countries, much of the future buildings stock is already in place, and so the main challenge is to renovate existing buildings stock. In non-IEA countries, more than half of the buildings stock needed by 2050 has yet to be built. The IEA and the UNDP partnered to analyse current practices in the design and implementation of building energy codes. The aim is to consolidate existing efforts and to encourage more attention to the role of the built environment in a low-carbon and climate-resilient world. Modernising Building Energy Codes sets out key steps in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The Policy Pathway series aims to help policy makers implement the IEA 25 Energy Efficiency Policy Recommendations endorsed by IEA Ministers (2011).