Impact of energy efficiency goals on systems of building regulations and control

Considerations of climate change, but also other political and economic reasons urge for the reduction of use of fossil fuels and the minimization of environmental impact by the built environment. The energy saving potential of the building stock is large and considered to be the most cost efficient sector to contribute to the CO2 reduction ambitions. Goals set by the European Union are to build net zero energy buildings in 2020 and to reach a neutral energy building stock by 2050. As long as the price of renewable energy is still not competitive with fossil energy, the energy saving goals can only be reached by strict governmental policies. In Europe the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive are driving forces for EU Member States to develop and strengthen energy performance regulations for new buildings and energy performance certificates (labels) for the building stock. The goal of this paper is to analyse the consequences of these developments on the systems of building regulations and control. It appears that, apart from adding new subjects, these new and very ambitious goals require systemic innovations in the regulatory systems. The current structures and approaches might not be adequate to deal with the new challenges. This is concluded from ongoing research that shows that aims of regulations in general and energy saving goals in particular, are hardly realized in practice.