Energy efficient buildings are critical infrastructure in a net-zero emission economy
Keywords:
energy efficiency, Canada Infrastructure Bank, building retrofit, business models, policy mixAbstract
The 2020 federal speech from the throne lists “energy efficiency retrofits” as infrastructure investment, and a new Canada Infrastructure Bank “growth plan” includes large building retrofits. The re-framing of energy efficiency as infrastructure highlights aggregate, society-wide, impacts rather than individual benefits. This policy perspective could deliver energy efficiency at the scale required to transition to net-zero GHG emissions - if it leads to a mission-oriented agenda focused on creating new financial markets and exploring new retrofit business models, by using a wide mix of policy tools.
References
Noam Bergman and Timothy J. Foxon, “Reframing Policy for the Energy Efficiency Challenge: Insights from Housing Retrofits in the United Kingdom,” Energy Research & Social Science 63 (2020): 101386.
Brenda Boardman, Fuel Poverty: From Cold Homes to Affordable Warmth (London: Belhaven Press, 1991).
Ronan Bolton and Matthew Hannon, “Governing Sustainability Transitions through Business Model Innovation: Towards a Systems Understanding,” Research Policy 45, no. 9 (2016): 1731–1742.
Frank Boons and Florian Lüdeke-Freund, “Business Models for Sustainable Innovation: State-of-the-Art and Steps Towards a Research Agenda,” Journal of Cleaner Production, Sustainable Innovation, and Business Models, 45 (April 1, 2013): 9–19, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.07.007.
Donal Brown, “Business Models for Residential Retrofit in the UK: A Critical Assessment of Five Key Archetypes,” Energy Efficiency 11, no. 6 (2018): 1497–1517.
Donal Brown, Paula Kivimaa, and Steven Sorrell, “An Energy Leap? Business Model Innovation and Intermediation in the ‘Energiesprong’Retrofit Initiative,” Energy Research & Social Science 58 (2019): 101253.
Canada Infrastructure Bank, “Mission and Mandate,” Canada Infrastructure Bank - Banque de l’infrastructure Du Canada (blog), accessed October 20, 2020, https://cib-bic.ca/en/about-us/mission-and-mandate/.
Dunsky Energy Consulting, “The Economic Impact of Improved Energy Efficiency in Canada: Employment and Other Economic Outcomes from the Pan-Canadian Framework’s Energy Efficiency Measures” (Vancouver, BC: Clean Energy Canada and Efficiency Canada, April 3, 2018).
European Commission, “Making Energy Retrofits a Standardised Product for the Finance Industry,” Investor Confidence Project Europe, 2016, https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/news/making-energy-retrofits-standardised-product-finance-industry.
James Crotty, Capitalism, Macroeconomics and Reality: Understanding Globalization, Financialization, Competition and Crisis (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017).
Richard Davies et al., “Measuring the Costs of Short-Termism,” Journal of Financial Stability 12 (2014): 16–25.
Efficiency Canada, “Everything You Need to Know about Energy Efficiency in Today’s Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) Announcement,” October 1, 2020, https://www.efficiencycanada.org/everything-you-need-to-know-about-energy-efficiency-in-todays-canada-infrastructure-bank-cib-announcement/.
William J. Fisk, “Health and Productivity Gains from Better Indoor Environments and Their Relationship with Building Energy Efficiency,” Annual Review of Energy and the Environment 25, no. 1 (2000): 537–66, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.energy.25.1.537.
Heidi Garrett-Peltier, “Green versus Brown: Comparing the Employment Impacts of Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, and Fossil Fuels Using an Input-Output Model,” Economic Modelling 61 (2017): 439–447.
Brendan Haley, “The Transformative Potential of Energy Efficient Buildings as Infrastructure,” The Hill Times, October 19, 2020, sec. Opinion, https://www.hilltimes.com/2020/10/19/267820/267820.
Brendan Haley et al., “From Utility Demand Side Management to Low-Carbon Transitions: Opportunities and Challenges for Energy Efficiency Governance in a New Era,” Energy Research & Social Science 59 (January 2020).
IEA, “Capturing the Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency” (International Energy Agency, 2014).
Christina E. Hoicka and Runa Das, “Ambitious Deep Energy Retrofits of Buildings to Accelerate the 1.5° C Energy Transition in Canada,” The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe Canadien, 2020.
Richard L. Kauffman, “Bringing down Green Financing Costs: How a State-Sponsored Bank Might Be the Key,” Community Development Investment Review, no. 01 (2014): 103–7.
Niall Kerr, Andy Gouldson, and John Barrett, “The Rationale for Energy Efficiency Policy: Assessing the Recognition of the Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency Retrofit Policy,” Energy Policy 106 (July 1, 2017): 212–21, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.03.053.
F. Kern, P. Kivimaa, and M. Martiskainen, “Policy Packaging or Policy Patching? The Development of Complex Energy Efficiency Policy Mixes,” Energy Research & Social Science 23 (January 2017): 11–25, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2016.11.002.
Mariana Mazzucato, The Entrepreneurial State?: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths (London: Anthem Press, 2013).
Mariana Mazzucato and Caetano C. R. Penna, “Beyond Market Failures: The Market Creating and Shaping Roles of State Investment Banks,” Journal of Economic Policy Reform 19, no. 4 (October 1, 2016): 305–26, https://doi.org/10.1080/17487870.2016.1216416.
Maggie Molina and Marty Kushler, “Policies Matter: Creating a Foundation for an Energy-Efficient Utility of the Future” (American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy, 2015).
Natural Resources Canada, “PEER – Prefabricated Exterior Energy Retrofit” (Natural Resources Canada, March 2, 2017), https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/efficiency/data-research-and-insights-energy-efficiency/housing-innovation/peer-prefabricated-exterior-energy-retrofit/19406.
Natural Resources Canada, “Sundance Housing Rehabilitation Project” (Natural Resources Canada, May 15, 2019), https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/science-and-data/funding-partnerships/funding-opportunities/current-investments/sundance-housing-rehabilitation-project/21926.
Karen L. Palmer et al., “Putting a Floor on Energy Savings: Comparing State Energy Efficiency Resource Standards,” Utilities Policy 25 (June 1, 2013): 43–57, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2013.02.002.
Paul Parker and Ian H. Rowlands, “City Partners Maintain Climate Change Action Despite National Cuts: Residential Energy Efficiency Programme Valued at Local Level,” Local Environment 12, no. 5 (October 1, 2007): 505–17, https://doi.org/10.1080/13549830701656853.
Jan Rosenow, Florian Kern, and Karoline Rogge, “The Need for Comprehensive and Well Targeted Instrument Mixes to Stimulate Energy Transitions: The Case of Energy Efficiency Policy,” Energy Research & Social Science 33 (November 2017): 95–104, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.09.013.
Jan Rosenow and Nick Eyre, “A Post Mortem of the Green Deal: Austerity, Energy Efficiency, and Failure in British Energy Policy,” Energy Research & Social Science 21 (2016): 141–144.
Nicola Willand, Ian Ridley, and Cecily Maller, “Towards Explaining the Health Impacts of Residential Energy Efficiency Interventions – A Realist Review. Part 1: Pathways,” Social Science & Medicine 133 (May 1, 2015): 191–201, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.02.005.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All content published in the Economic Development Journal of Canada is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Attribution (CC BY) International 4.0 license. The journal owns copyright for all works published prior to June 2020. The author(s) retain copyright for all works published after June 2020.
