The role of carbon finance in enhancing building performance in developing countries

Abstract

Buildings in developing countries (DCs) will play a significant role in global GHG emission mitigation in the next decades (IPCC, 2007; IEA,2008). According to the UN World Urbanization Prospects report (2005 revision), 60 percent (4.9 billion) of world population will live in cites by 2030, most of them in DCs. The unprecedented urbanization in these countries poses a huge challenge for environment since most of buildings are built quickly and cheaply to accommodate new immigrants and the energy performance is often considered second priority. Implementation of energy efficiency in buildings confronts both technical and institutional barriers. Enabling environmental sustainability buildings with economic benefits and welfare improvement is the major concerns on the policy agenda in DCs. Therefore how to articulate sustainable urban development and emissions reduction policies in DCs will be of considerable importance in the post-Kyoto climate regime negotiation. Considerable investment will be required to allow the uptake of climate-friendly technologies and capacity building, thus financial assistance and technology transfer from developed countries to DCs is likely to play increasingly important role.