Projects : : Chinese Building Efficiency

Home > Projects > Chinese Building Efficiency

Projects : Chinese Building Efficiency

Can carbon finance create a cleaner, more efficient building sector in China? Climate Focus is testing programmatic approaches for the Clean Development Mechanism in Xiamen, China.

Buildings consume almost 30 percent of China’s country’s energy and account for an increasing share of the country’s GHG emissions. As living standards rise along with urbanization, this will only increase. Climate Focus was asked by the German Ministry of the Environment to test carbon financing instruments that would incentivize a more efficient building sector. This project will pioneer carbon financing for energy efficiency through a Programme of Activities approach under the Clean Development Mechanism in the southern province of Xiamen, a first for China. It will also examine the potential for domestic credit trading mechanisms in the building sector. An analysis of improvements to the building and ventilation design, along with carbon financing and trading mechanisms, will create options appropriate for China. Ultimately, this is expected to lead to a pilot Programme of Activities project with the Xiamen Construction and Administration Bureau and a potential domestic market for offsets credits in the sector.

The project is being implemented by a consortium of six organizations, including the Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Delegation of German Industry & Commerce Beijing, the Research Center for International Environmental Policy of Tsinghua University, Beijing HOPA International Consulting Co., Ltd. and BBS International China Co., Ltd. It is expected to continue through 2011.

You can find more information about Climate Focus’s work on our website under related sections on services (Policy, Legal, and Methodologies), sectors (Building and Energy Efficiency, and Renewable Energy) and focus areas (Voluntary Market and Programme of Activities).