Property plan's 'low carbon' goal (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Mark Kinver
Science and nature reporter, BBC News

Improving the environmental performance of buildings in North America can cut the region's carbon emissions more than any other measure, a study suggests.

The rapid take-up of current and new technologies could save the equivalent of the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by transport in the US, it concluded.

However, it added that developers and homeowners were not willing to pay the extra cost for energy saving measures.

Buildings are responsible for about 35% of the region's man-made CO2 emissions.

The report published by the Commission for Environmental Co-operation (CEC), an international organisation created by Canada, Mexico and the US, said it was possible for the most efficient buildings to consume 70% less energy than conventional properties.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7288320.stm

[kristopher]

1. Full report available for download here

http://www.cec.org/pubs_docs/documents/index.cfm?varlan=english&ID=2242


"Promoting the green design, construction, renovation and operation of buildings could cut North American greenhouse gas emissions that are fuelling climate change more deeply, quickly and cheaply than any other available measure, according to a new report issued by the trinational Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC).

North America’s buildings cause the annual release of more than 2,200 megatons of CO2 into the atmosphere, about 35 percent of the continent’s total. The report says rapid market uptake of currently available and emerging advanced energy-saving technologies could result in over 1,700 fewer megatons of CO2 emissions in 2030, compared to projected emissions that year following a business-as-usual approach. A cut of that size would nearly equal the CO2 emitted by the entire US transportation sector in 2000.

It is common now for more advanced green buildings to routinely reduce energy usage by 30, 40, or even 50 percent over conventional buildings, with the most efficient buildings now performing more than 70 percent better than conventional properties, according to the report...."



Also at the CEC website is:
CEC launches new map layer for Google Earth that lets users explore pollution data from over 30,000 industrial facilities in North America.
http://www.cec.org/home/index.cfm?varlan=english

Looks interesting.