The India Energy Outlook 2021 is a new special report from the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook series. The report explores the opportunities and challenges ahead for India as it seeks to ensure reliable, affordable and sustainable energy to a growing population. The report examines pathways out of the crisis that emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as longer-term trends, exploring how India’s energy sector might evolve to 2040 under a range of scenarios. The report is presented as a series of ‘deep dives’ exploring cross-cutting issues, including:

- The effects of economic growth, urbanisation and industrialisation on India’s fuel and sector-level demand trends.
- The evolution of mobility, including electrification, in the context of growing urbanisation.
- The prospects for expanding energy access, especially in rural areas.
- Flexibility requirements in the power sector under ambitious renewable capacity targets and a significant rise in electricity demand – especially from air conditioners.
- Challenges and opportunities for clean energy finance, including investments in solar energy and batteries
- The supply and infrastructure required for an expanded role for natural gas, along with a sector-level assessment of its potential.
- Impacts of India’s energy policy choices on energy access, air pollution and carbon emissions.
- India’s growing importance in global energy issues, and the implications of its development trajectory on international energy supply, trade and investment.

The Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction is a reference document of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC). The fifth edition of this annual snapshot of the progress of the buildings and construction sector globally towards the achievement of the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, particularly on the drivers of CO2 emissions and energy demand globally and the status of policies, finance, technologies, and solutions that support a zero-emission, efficient, and resilient buildings and construction sector. This year’s Buildings-GSR features input from over 110 GlobalABC members and experts from all regions: a true collaborative effort, building a global community. This year’s Buildings-GSR shines a light on the disruptions of COVID-19 and some of the responses in 2020, and includes a snapshot on emerging key issues: materials, nature-based solutions, health, and cooling for resilience. It also introduces a new index to track progress in decarbonisation in the sector – the Buildings Climate Tracker (BCT).

While the total final energy consumption of the global buildings sector remained at the same level in 2019 compared to the previous year, CO2 emissions from the operation of buildings have increased to their highest level yet at around 10 GtCO2, or 28% of total global energy-related CO2 emissions. With the inclusion of emissions from the buildings construction industry, this share increases to 38% of total global energy-related CO2 emissions. The slightly lower proportion of buildings emissions compared with the 39% seen in 2018 was due to the increases in transport and other industry emissions relative to buildings.

Sources: (IEA 2020d; IEA 2020b). All rights reserved. Adapted from “IEA World Energy Statistics and Balances” and “Energy TechnologyPerspectives".

Authors: Dr. Ian Hamilton and Dr. Harry Kennard from University College London (UCL) and Oliver Rapf, Dr. Judit Kockat and Dr. Sheikh Zuhaib from the Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE), with support from Thibaut Abergel and Michael Oppermann from the International Energy Agency (IEA), and support from Martina Otto, Sophie Loran, Nora Steurer and Natacha Nass from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

The CESBA initiative policy paper establishes the policy position of CESBA regarding EU policy developments on sustainable building. The incentive to draw up the paper has been a process launched by the European Commission within the frame of the Europe2020 strategy: The Commission aims at developing a Europe-wide approach to assess the environmental performance of buildings. The CESBA initiative policy paper welcomes this process and highlights the need for a harmonized approach due to the diversity of local issues in Europe. CESBA stresses that it is ready and willing to share its knowledge with all stakeholders.

Going beyond traditional buildings energy codes (new approaches): Governments need to check compliance and enforce their building energy codes. The ultimate objective of building energy codes should be to move buildings from net energy consumers to net energy producers. By increasing the stringency of energy requirements each time building energy codes are updated, it is possible to move towards nearly zero-energy consumption for the overall building, including all its appliances and equipment. Using renewable energy sources from the building itself and other neighbouring buildings can help with this transformation, and is key to achieving net energy production from buildings.