Energy Efficiency in Buildings: New Internet Platform bigEE for Users from All over the Globe Starts to Be Set Up

In the short to medium term, energy efficiency offers the fastest, most cost-effective, and largest potential for mitigating climate change and for protecting our resources. "Every country on this planet could reduce its energy demand by 15 to 20 percent by 2020 through implementing cost-effective energy efficiency measures", explains Dr. Stefan Thomas, Director of the Research Group Energy, Transport and Climate Policy. "However, most decision makers in politics, business, and civil society are lacking an overview of where the most relevant and cost-effective savings can be found, and how they should best be tackled."

bigEE is supposed to remedy this problem. The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (FME) is supporting the initiative "bigEE - Bridging the Information Gap on Energy Efficiency in Buildings", which is now being launched by the Wuppertal Institute under the coordination of Stefan Thomas. The support is being granted within the scope of the International Climate Initiative, which was set up based on a decision of the German Parliament. bigEE will collect the information that is existing but scattered around the world, and make it comparable according to scientific standards. The knowledge will be presented to decision makers and experts in a comprehensive, easy-to-use way and will be disseminated through a network of partner organisations.

Furthermore, jointly with the German Government, the Wuppertal Institute intends to provide a contribution to the planned Sustainable Buildings Network in the new International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation through this knowledge platform.

China and India are the first two partner countries, at least three further emerging economies shall be added at a later stage. Over the years to come, the Wuppertal Institute will build an internet-based knowledge platform on energy efficiency in buildings, including globally useful information and specific pages for these countries. Apart from the Federal Environment Ministry, other cooperating institutions are expected to be the International Energy Agency (IEA), the German Technical Cooperation GTZ, and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) via the UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP). Along with further partners in the five emerging economies, these institutions will be actively using and disseminating the knowledge provided by the platform.

The project will

• Raise greater attention for the various benefits of energy efficiency, especially on the demand-side;
• Provide practical information on technical solutions, potentials, benefits and costs of energy-efficient solutions, feasible implementation strategies and packages of policies and measures, and good practice case studies to the target groups - in a coherent, easily comprehensible, and integrated manner;
• Stimulate communication about these topics.

The primary target group of this initiative are policy-makers. But also public and private investors, as well as consultants and other actors in policy and energy service implementation are being addressed. Information shall be edited with a view to these target groups and shall be provided accordingly.

The platform will include specific pages for the partner countries on the energy saving potentials by sector and end-use, net economic benefit, country-specific actor constellations in energy efficiency markets, as well as on existing policy instruments and good practice case studies. These pages will complement the core part of the platform, consisting of information on energy efficiency in buildings that is useful for all countries in the world.

"Energy efficiency has always played a key role in the Wuppertal Institute's research, not least through the work of its former President, Professor Peter Hennicke," as Prof. Dr. Manfred Fischedick points out. The Vice President and Acting Head of the Institute adds: "We are therefore especially happy that Peter Hennicke will be supporting the project as Senior Advisor. This international project for climate protection serves to develop scientific knowledge and to disseminate it in a user-friendly way. The project is thus exactly in line with the Institute's basic mission. Through bigEE, we are sure that we are going to contribute to increasing perception and implementation of energy efficiency on a global scale."

Press release by Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy

Responsible: Prof. Dr. Manfred Fischedick, Vice President

Contact: Dorle Riechert, Public Relations

Tel. +49 (0)202 2492-180, Fax +49 (0)202 2492-108

E-mail: pr@wupperinst.org