The recently published report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC signals ‘a code red for humanity’and recommends that greenhouse gas emissions decrease as soon and as quickly as possible. Developed economies like the European Union and Aotearoa New Zealand can help in this effort by leading by example. Reducing our buildings' footprint is an important component to the transition to net zero, yet many of those buildings that will stand in 2050 are energy inefficient buildings that already stand today. However, given our already high building and housing costs, this transition could be challenging. Hence, we are bringing together practitioners from the EU to discuss their experiences with sustainable housing regulation in order to shed light on the following:

• What can policy makers glean from the lessons learned by these EU practitioners to enable our shift towards new buildings with near zero emissions and to reduce emissions of the existing housing stock?

• What might be done to ensure a just transition occurs in this space?

Come and join the discussion! The webinar will be hosted by Motu in cooperation with the diplomatic representation of the European Union, Germany and Finland in New Zealand and the NZ Green Building Council.

Our Speakers:

Mr Dimitris Athanasiou from the Directorate General for Energy in the European Commission. Dimitris is in charge of monitoring the efficient implementation of the European Union’s Energy Performance of Buildings legislation, the uptake of nearly zero-energy buildings and the design of long-term renovation strategies. Dimitris will present lessons learnt from the European Union’s experience with top-down legislation in this field so far;

Mr Uwe Bigalke is the team leader in charge of the deployment of innovative energy solutions for building renovations at the German Energy Agency. Uwe will present national-level implementation strategies, solutions and technologies being deployed successfully in Germany, and their plans for the future;

Ms Kaisa-Reeta Koskinen leads the Carbon Neutral Helsinki 2035 action plan and heads the Climate Unit for the City of Helsinki. Kaisa-Reeta will present Helsinki’s city-level strategy to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from buildings.

Andrew Eagles, CEO of the New Zealand Green Building Council, will provide a perspective on New Zealand’s efforts in the field so far and reflect on relevant lessons from New Zealand from the EU experience so far and vice versa.

Assoc. Prof. Michael Jack is Director of the Energy Programme in the Department of Physics at the University of Otago. Michael will present his research on the potential role of high-performance buildings in reducing the demand for electrical heating in winter which would reduce pressure on the grid at peak times and enable 100% renewable electricity;