Greening the built environment: A review of Dutch, German, Danish and British energy savings policies to reduce the energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the residential sector

In this research we try to understand the effect that certain policy measures have had across countries in order to reduce the energy consumption and CO2 emissions for space heating in the residential sector. More specifically, we have focused on energy intensity, which is described as the energy consumption each square meter (MJ/m2) of useful floor area in a dwelling. When taking into account the CO2 emissions of the types of fuels used to generate domestic heat, the energy intensity can be transformed into a CO2 emission intensity (kg CO2/m2), Often, it is easier to persuade home owners to take energy saving actions compared to tenants. This relates to the split-incentive. The share of home owners among the population of all 28 European countries has remained relatively stable over the past few years, amounting to approximately 69% (Statista, 2017). The Netherlands has the highest share with 69,4%, Germany the lowest with 51,4%1, as shown in Figure 1. For the Netherlands, this in theory should lead to more energy savings opportunities compared to the other countries.