{"id":63575,"date":"2022-09-16T07:00:53","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T05:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/publication\/adaptation-batiments-vagues-chaleur-investissement\/"},"modified":"2023-09-05T13:59:31","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T11:59:31","slug":"buildings-new-heat-waves-invest-today-to-limit-the-bill-tomorrow-climate","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/buildings-new-heat-waves-invest-today-to-limit-the-bill-tomorrow-climate\/","title":{"rendered":"Buildings new heat waves: invest today to limit the bill tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 35\u00b0C in exam halls during the <\/span><\/span>French <\/span><\/span><\/span>baccalaureate, inhabitants <\/span><\/span>affected<\/span><\/span><\/span> by their residences overheat<\/span><\/span>ed<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2026 Summer 2022 has once again shown that our buildings <\/span>aren\u2019t<\/span> adapted for the new heat waves. And yet every year, tens of billions of euros are invested in construction and renovation projects that <\/span>don\u2019t<\/span> always take climate change into account. In this study,\u202f I4<\/span>CE<\/strong> proposes <\/span><\/span>immediate<\/span><\/span><\/span> action<\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span><\/span> on three levers to<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>initiate<\/span><\/span><\/span> the process of adapting our buildings, and three more structural changes, including changes to thermal regulations.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Report only available in French<\/h3>\n

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Buildings are not designed to cope with increasingly intense heat waves<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Over 35\u00b0C in some examination rooms during the<\/span> French<\/span> baccalaureate<\/span> exams in June, residents suffering from overheating in poorly insulated homes. The summer of 2022 has once again shown that buildings are <\/span>not designed<\/span> to cope with the new heat waves we’re experiencing. And this is just the beginning: <\/span>M\u00e9t\u00e9o<\/span> France<\/span> (the French national agency for <\/span>meteo<\/span> and climate predictions) <\/span>predicts that heatwaves will become more frequent and more severe, whatever the <\/span>emission<\/span> scenario considered. <\/span>The<\/span> question of personal discomfort is gradually becoming a more fundamental issue of building habitability (or operability in the case of industrial or commercial buildings), directly affecting health and safety issues. It therefore seems unthinkable that buildings constructed or renovated today do not systematically take this issue into account. Yet neither building regulations, whose calculation rules are based on past climatic conditions, nor public financial aid encourage buildings to take account <\/span>the<\/span> expected<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>future climate<\/span>. <\/span>Differently,<\/span> every year, tens of billions of euros – including a significant proportion of public money – are invested in construction and renovation projects that will soon prove unsuited to new climatic conditions. In some cases, these investments even exacerbate the problem by financing buildings dependent on air-conditioning, or renovation operations which, while providing energy savings in winter, prove counter-productive in summer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Designing<\/b> buildings adapted to <\/b>climate change: it’s already possible<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Our analysis of existing literature on the t<\/span>opic<\/span>, and our interviews with industry<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>stakeholders<\/span>, show that taking greater account of summer comfort in a building, in a sustainable way and without recourse to air-conditioning, generally poses no major technical difficulty. It’s<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>first of all<\/span> a question of the <\/span>willingness to incorporate this concern into the project’s specifications. In most situations, this can be achieved at an additional cost of around ten percent. In all cases, designing buildings<\/span> adapt<\/span>ed<\/span> to climate change from the moment they are built, or when they are renovated, will be cheaper than having to reinvest in adapting buildings<\/span>, and will avoid massive recourse to air-conditioning, with its negative energy and environmental externalities. Integrating climate change into all construction and renovation projects from the outset is therefore a key factor in the efficiency of public spending.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Three levers to activate to <\/b>initiate<\/b> an ambitious adaptation <\/b>dynamic<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n
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  1. Systematically take climate change into account in public real estate projects. The French government, local authorities and public <\/span>agencies<\/span> could immediately include summer comfort criteria in the specifications for their own real estate projects – particularly when they concern sensitive public buildings and uses (e.g. school buildings, social housing, etc.) – that go beyond <\/span>actual <\/span>thermal regulations. <\/span>For example, <\/span>i<\/span>n the case of teaching and research buildings, <\/span>this would represent an additional annual investment effort of around \u20ac500 million<\/span>\/year<\/span> on a current investment estimated at \u20ac4.9 billion\/year.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Redirect renovation <\/span>aids<\/span> towards<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>deep<\/span>,<\/span> and<\/span> high-performance operations. By 2021, over \u20ac6.9 <\/span>billion<\/span> will have been <\/span>paid <\/span>spent<\/span> in energy renovation grants. Most of the renovation work financed in this way has been limited to a single item of work (<\/span>roof<\/span> insulation, changing the heating system, etc.). But <\/span>to properly address <\/span>summer comfort<\/span>, it needs to be part of a project that simultaneously addresses all the levers for improving the building, not only in terms of comfort, but also energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. This is yet another argument in favor of redirecting public funding towards d<\/span>ep renovation <\/span>projects, which also offer other advantages in terms of meeting carbon neutrality targets.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Support the industry’s skills development through research, ecosystem development and training. Given the scale and speed of the transformations required, investment is needed to create a favorable environment and support the industry. This support will involve training for the various <\/span>stakeholders<\/span> in the building sector, as well as stepping up research into technical solutions, providing leadership and training to accelerate the dissemination of best practices, and making appropriate climatic information available. As part of the Quanti-Adapt project, we have estimated the funding requirements associated with such a package of actions at<\/span> around<\/span> \u20ac31 million per year.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    Click here to see “31 M\u20ac\/year to support the industry’s skills development<\/span>” in French<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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    In the longer term, we need to conside<\/span>r more structural changes to ensure that the building stock is truly adapted to the needs of the sector.<\/span><\/p>\n

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