Wake up 21st century Europe! - Green Economy or fossil fuel addiction?
- by Steven Borncamp
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- le 2014-04-14 07:11:35
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- International
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- vus 4389
Recent geopolitical events have brought even more clearly into focus the tenuous availability of secure and affordable fossil fuels supplies for all of Europe and particularly in the East. Percentages of dependency of imported gas for afflicted countries ranged from 100% with zero storage capacity to 24% with very limited storage capacity. A recent article in The Economist described at length the challenges and required mechanizations of alternate routings of gas pipelines to inoculate other countries from disruptions in gas in the event of a prolonged conflict between Russia and Ukraine. To summarize the findings... highly problematic and slow.
Much of Europe - for the most part - missed an opportunity in this economic crisis (still afflicting many) to support private and public schemes to dramatically improve energy efficiency. Even if the gas keeps flowing, Ukraine will suffer severe economic challenges due to uncertainty of its near and midterm economic outlook. Other countries vulnerable to supply shocks will lose investor confidence. Many of the countries that will be affected by the energy supply disruption also suffer from poorly performing buildings with respect to energy use amplifying the human suffering and economic crisis disruption will bring.
Creating economic optimism as a palliative force for avoiding armed conflict between the parties is also of utmost importance but optimism will not come from simply offering to help one pay their gas bill. Needed today to provide adequate and urgent economic support are comprehensive and proven programs to provide "deep" renovations of today's inefficient existing building stock and ensure everything new that is built is appropriate for future energy realities. Studies show buildings can be built or renovated with 30 to 40% energy savings without any cost implication to the total project and paid for with the positive, continuous future cash flow of energy savings. The leading designers and other leaders of "deep green" buildings movement can achieve far better performance - even approaching Net Zero Energy Buildings with no cost impact. The greenest pioneers have looked beyond the low hanging fruit of energy efficiency to implement new models of a circular economy to provide for increasing prosperity in the face of resource scarcity and global population growth. Renovation work, in particular, has the added benefit in that it cannot easily be mechanized ensuring significant and fast job creation for high, middle and low skilled jobs. Green growth also provides massive export potential of services, products and technologies for the countries with the most developed green solutions. Would it not be better for these countries to also provide opportunity for themselves by providing direct support for green growth rather than provide the massive financial support necessary to simply pay the bills of those who have created the dependency in the first place? Surely the Russian population would also benefit by creating new alternatives to its overwhelming dependency on gas and oil exports
There are many possible and quick-to-implement steps that can help. Significant Property Tax reductions for Green Buildings require private sector investment quickly and efficiently with municipal fiscal impacts mitigated by higher building valuations and increased tax receipts on purchasing the materials, technology, and services to enact the required work. Green Mortgages reduce the total monthly cost of home ownership while supplying better quality, energy efficient homes. Both schemes can function very well without government subsidy but could be accelerated with government support. Both schemes stimulate needed innovation across the value chain of the construction and real estate financing processes.
Looking back on events in the turn of the millennium we saw Arnold Schwarzenegger elected Governor of California in a special recall election; driven by voter anger with a failed attempt to use scarce government funding to keep the cost of a kilowatt low for the population by paying the energy companies to keep the consumer's bill low. It is, of course, beyond obvious that if the consumer (or European business trying to stay competitive ) pays a price per kilowatt... then a focus on reducing the kilowatts required can serve the same purpose as a price subsidy; with the added benefit of creating a needed economic stimulus in the form of green jobs for a new economic model. Using a term coined by the Rocky Mountain Institutes's Amory Lovins, Europe should first look for solutions in the "Nega-Watt" - that is to reduce the need for fossil fuel to produce energy by using energy efficiency measures - rather than price supports to keep the 20th century fossil fuel Megawatts flowing.
The significant fossil fuel price rise via the removal of politically-driven price ceilings will have short-term impacts for countries with already high incidence of fuel poverty. A reduction in fuel subsidies will surely be a requirement now or in the near term for the financial assistance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Preceded, however, by a comprehensive, job producing economic stimulus of incentives for deep renovation and green new construction this approach would (literally) insulate vulnerable populations from price shocks by reducing the energy consumed while creating needed employment.
This is, of course, an issue of interest not just to policy makers, but to the business community, and affects millions of families directly and indirectly. Subsidy removal preceded by inadequate preparatory measures has brought or will bring people to the streets in afflicted countries. This can and must be done better and urgently. The need to gather quickly policy makers, business leaders, academia to respond correctly needs to occur at digital not analogue speed.
We began the Construction21EXPO.eu initiative over one year ago to facilitate greater comfort with investors for aiming to the highest green performance and to assure all countries of the European continent they can think in the most ambitious terms of what they can achieve and how their buildings could provide the health, well being, economic security and environmental stewardship we need now and for future generations. We invite you to show your support and take action toward a green economy by registering today to attend without cost Construction21EXPO.eu. You will attend online from anywhere as a virtual "avatar" and learn from and interact with the visionary municipalities, deep green investors, project developers and solution providers who are achieving the highest definition of truly green buildings and doing it with a strong business case.
We need to break from this 20th century energy system before the system breaks us. This was an important event when we started but even more so today. Hope you can join.
Steve
Steven Borncamp
Co-Director - Construction21.eu
Chair of Education - Europe Network - World Green Building Council
Much of Europe - for the most part - missed an opportunity in this economic crisis (still afflicting many) to support private and public schemes to dramatically improve energy efficiency. Even if the gas keeps flowing, Ukraine will suffer severe economic challenges due to uncertainty of its near and midterm economic outlook. Other countries vulnerable to supply shocks will lose investor confidence. Many of the countries that will be affected by the energy supply disruption also suffer from poorly performing buildings with respect to energy use amplifying the human suffering and economic crisis disruption will bring.
Creating economic optimism as a palliative force for avoiding armed conflict between the parties is also of utmost importance but optimism will not come from simply offering to help one pay their gas bill. Needed today to provide adequate and urgent economic support are comprehensive and proven programs to provide "deep" renovations of today's inefficient existing building stock and ensure everything new that is built is appropriate for future energy realities. Studies show buildings can be built or renovated with 30 to 40% energy savings without any cost implication to the total project and paid for with the positive, continuous future cash flow of energy savings. The leading designers and other leaders of "deep green" buildings movement can achieve far better performance - even approaching Net Zero Energy Buildings with no cost impact. The greenest pioneers have looked beyond the low hanging fruit of energy efficiency to implement new models of a circular economy to provide for increasing prosperity in the face of resource scarcity and global population growth. Renovation work, in particular, has the added benefit in that it cannot easily be mechanized ensuring significant and fast job creation for high, middle and low skilled jobs. Green growth also provides massive export potential of services, products and technologies for the countries with the most developed green solutions. Would it not be better for these countries to also provide opportunity for themselves by providing direct support for green growth rather than provide the massive financial support necessary to simply pay the bills of those who have created the dependency in the first place? Surely the Russian population would also benefit by creating new alternatives to its overwhelming dependency on gas and oil exports
There are many possible and quick-to-implement steps that can help. Significant Property Tax reductions for Green Buildings require private sector investment quickly and efficiently with municipal fiscal impacts mitigated by higher building valuations and increased tax receipts on purchasing the materials, technology, and services to enact the required work. Green Mortgages reduce the total monthly cost of home ownership while supplying better quality, energy efficient homes. Both schemes can function very well without government subsidy but could be accelerated with government support. Both schemes stimulate needed innovation across the value chain of the construction and real estate financing processes.
Looking back on events in the turn of the millennium we saw Arnold Schwarzenegger elected Governor of California in a special recall election; driven by voter anger with a failed attempt to use scarce government funding to keep the cost of a kilowatt low for the population by paying the energy companies to keep the consumer's bill low. It is, of course, beyond obvious that if the consumer (or European business trying to stay competitive ) pays a price per kilowatt... then a focus on reducing the kilowatts required can serve the same purpose as a price subsidy; with the added benefit of creating a needed economic stimulus in the form of green jobs for a new economic model. Using a term coined by the Rocky Mountain Institutes's Amory Lovins, Europe should first look for solutions in the "Nega-Watt" - that is to reduce the need for fossil fuel to produce energy by using energy efficiency measures - rather than price supports to keep the 20th century fossil fuel Megawatts flowing.
The significant fossil fuel price rise via the removal of politically-driven price ceilings will have short-term impacts for countries with already high incidence of fuel poverty. A reduction in fuel subsidies will surely be a requirement now or in the near term for the financial assistance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Preceded, however, by a comprehensive, job producing economic stimulus of incentives for deep renovation and green new construction this approach would (literally) insulate vulnerable populations from price shocks by reducing the energy consumed while creating needed employment.
This is, of course, an issue of interest not just to policy makers, but to the business community, and affects millions of families directly and indirectly. Subsidy removal preceded by inadequate preparatory measures has brought or will bring people to the streets in afflicted countries. This can and must be done better and urgently. The need to gather quickly policy makers, business leaders, academia to respond correctly needs to occur at digital not analogue speed.
We began the Construction21EXPO.eu initiative over one year ago to facilitate greater comfort with investors for aiming to the highest green performance and to assure all countries of the European continent they can think in the most ambitious terms of what they can achieve and how their buildings could provide the health, well being, economic security and environmental stewardship we need now and for future generations. We invite you to show your support and take action toward a green economy by registering today to attend without cost Construction21EXPO.eu. You will attend online from anywhere as a virtual "avatar" and learn from and interact with the visionary municipalities, deep green investors, project developers and solution providers who are achieving the highest definition of truly green buildings and doing it with a strong business case.
We need to break from this 20th century energy system before the system breaks us. This was an important event when we started but even more so today. Hope you can join.
Steve
Steven Borncamp
Co-Director - Construction21.eu
Chair of Education - Europe Network - World Green Building Council