News Brief

Australians Promote Cap-and-Trade System for Building Energy Use

Leaders in the Australian green building sector are promoting a cap-and-trade scheme for building energy efficiency to supplement greenhouse gas trading.

Maria Atkinson, global head of sustainability for property giant Lend Lease, and Che Wall, group director at Lincolne Scott consulting engineers and former head of the World Green Building Council, are behind the plan, which they hope will overcome limitations in current emissions-trading schemes. They hope to create an incentive for achieving dramatic energy savings through fundamental building improvements. They argue that under current emissions cap-and-trade systems only incremental improvements are considered because of the strict rules governing those programs. Even those improvements often fall prey to the split-incentive problem, in which the entity responsible for making the investment is not the party that would reap the savings.

Government agencies in Australia are currently reviewing the proposal, which was presented in September at the Sustainable Buildings 2008 conference in Melbourne. A summary is available online in PDF format at www.BuildingGreen.com/go/cap-and-trade.

Published September 25, 2008

Malin, N. (2008, September 25). Australians Promote Cap-and-Trade System for Building Energy Use. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/newsbrief/australians-promote-cap-and-trade-system-building-energy-use

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