Building Energy Efficiency in China: Policies and Trends

Date: 

Thursday, March 23, 2017, 3:30pm to 4:45pm

Location: 

Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA

Speaker: Barbara Finamore

Barbara FINAMORE, Senior Attorney and Asia Director, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

Co-sponsored by the China Project, Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities, Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Abstract: Energy used in buildings is responsible for 30% of China’s CO2 emissions, a percentage that is expected to grow as China continues to urbanize and transition to a service economy. China has developed a variety of policy tools designed to reduce building energy consumption and waste, including building energy codes, policies and programs to promote the green building sector, and targets and incentives to expand energy efficiency retrofits for existing buildings.  This presentation will outline some of China’s key policies and initiatives to improve building energy efficiency, discusses several outstanding challenges and conclude with an overview of latest developments.