Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Buildings and Construction

CURRENT

CONSTRUCTION COUNTS FOR CLIMATE – Side Event of the United Nations Climate Change Conference was held 11 December 2009 in Copenhagen

The Side Event on Buildings was organized by the Ministry of the Environment of Finland (Marrakech Task Force on SBC) in cooperation with UNEP SBCI, UNEP FI and ADEME.

A webcast of the whole event is available at:

• http://www.se2009.eu/1.26268

Please find below a link to the program  and the presentations of the event. The Finnish Minister of Housing, H.E. Jan Vapaavuori was the keynote speaker.

• COP15 Construction Counts For Climate 11 Dec Side Event - program (pdf, 319 kb)
• Keynote address by the Minister of Housing of Finland, H.E. Jan Vapaavuori
• Sylvie Lemmet (pdf, 919 kb)
• Diana Urge (pdf, 5 159 kb)
• Stephane Pouffary (pdf, 1 291 kb)
• Hewson Baltzell (pdf, 936 kb)
• Priyanka Kochhar (pdf, 1 456 kb)

In the event, UNEP SBCI launched these two key reports:

• Buildings and Climate Change. Summary for Decision Makers (pdf, 3 765 kb)
• Common Carbon Metric for Measuring Energy Use & Reporting Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Building Operations (pdf, 2 022 kb)

SBC and Climate Change

One of the side events of the climate negotiations in Bonn during the first two weeks of June 2009 was organized by two UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) initiatives, the Sustainable Building and Construction Initiative (SBCI) ja Finance Initiative (FI) Wednesday 3 June.

The title of the event was "The property and building sector and the Copenhagen Agreement”. The Chair of the Marrakech Task Force on SBC was invited to chair the session, which was webcast by the UNFCCC secretariat and can be seen at the UNFCCC website. All the presentation powerpoints can be downloaded from the same website.

• UNFCCC

This event in one in the series of events highlighting the great GHG emission reduction potential of the built environment. One of the key messages in Bonn was that policies supporting sustainable energy solutions in buildings should be part of NAMAs (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions) and that specific financing mechanisms are needed for the sector.

A draft 10YFP (10-Year Framework of Programmes) online!

The main task of the Marrakech Process and the Task Forces is to provide input into the 10YFP, which will be discussed at the CSD sessions 18 and 19 in 2010 and 2011. Please use the opportunity to review the second draft document, which is available online. A deadline for comments closed in early June, and we look forward to the next draft that should be posted by UN DESA and UNEP later this year.

• Proposed Input to CSD on a 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (UNEP)

SBC Task Force in St. Petersburg in April 2009

Russian and foreign experts met in St. Petersburg and discussed energy efficiency and sustainable development in the built environment.  The meeting was organized within the framework of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council’s Working Group on Environment and supported by the government of Sweden, and by the Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Buildings and Construction (SBC).

The strategic framework for the discussions was set by the Decree given 4 June 2008 by the President of the Russian Federation, Mr. Dmitry Medvedev. The Decree set a target to increase the energy efficiency of the Russian economy by at least 40 % from the level in 2007 by 2020. The Decree also highlighted the need to implement urgent measures for improving energy efficiency in construction and municipal sectors. 

Enclosed is the Co-Chairs’ summary of the seminar, available both in English and in Russian.

• St Petersburg Co-Chairs Summary 15April09, (pdf, 254 kb)
• St Petersburg Co-Chairs summary 15April09 Rus, (pdf, 270 kb)

Construction Counts for Climate - Presentations in the Side Event during UNFCCC COP-14 in Poznan, 9 December 2008

• Side event programme (pdf, 735 kb)
• Summary (pdf, 121 kb)
• Setting the scene: Planning, constructing and using buildings; Kaarin Taipale, SBC MTF (pdf, 3271 kb)
• The role of the Kyoto protocol for emission reductions from buildings; Mark Radka, UNEP (pdf, 2890 kb)
• New financing for energy efficiency in buildings; Lasse Ringius, WB (pdf, 394 kb)
• Global Environment Facility perspectives and lessons learned from clean energy investments in the buildings sector; Robert K. Dixon, GEF (pdf, 576 kb)

Interesting publications by others

• Low Energy Home Concepts, Tampere University of Technology Report (pdf, 680 kb)
• Green Building in North America - Opportunities and Challenges (pdf, 2,1 Mb)