Consumption of energy is an unequal game. North America, Asia, and Europe are disproportionately energy hogs. They consume most of the fossil fuels burned which is the cause of anthropogenic climate change. Our North American and European homes need to be heated in the winter and chilled in the summer. And then there are the technological gadgets that fill our homes and have us consuming more energy than all of Africa, South America, and Oceania combined.

That’s why energy conservation leading to reduced consumption and lower emissions is an important weapon in our arsenal to combat climate change. This means we need to look at the contributing factors to our energy-hog lifestyle. It means changing our behaviour.

Making lifestyle changes is easier if one can see the goal ahead. The problem with climate change is we likely cannot or will not see the results of our behavioural changes during our lifetimes. As a result, we walk slowly towards the change we need to make rather than run to embrace it.

Here in Canada as well as in the United States and Europe, most of us live in cities. Canadian and American cities are relatively young. European ones are older. The buildings in the Americas are largely 20th-century constructs. The buildings in Europe are a mix of old and new. Whether dealing with structures dating back to the Middle Ages, or those more contemporary, very few of the legacy buildings that dominate our cities have been designed with energy conservation in mind.

That’s why cities need to come up with smart policies and programs backed by funding both public and private to address energy conservation. Correcting the energy inefficiency in legacy buildings needs to be a high priority. Doing it will help cities to get to net-zero emissions faster than almost any other policy or program they initiate. It is, however, easier to have aspirations to achieve this, than it is to accomplish it.

For example, my home city, Toronto, has more than 450,000 legacy buildings in its inventory with the vast majority built pre-1970. These include:

• individual standalone homes
• semi-residential and townhouses
• multi-unit residential buildings including rentals and condominiums
• commercial retail and industrial low-rise buildings
• large commercial high-rise towers dominating the city core
• arenas, sports and recreational venues

The vast majority of these buildings have not been designed to conserve energy. And so far, the city, other than looking at its own inventory of 500 buildings or so, hasn’t created policies and funded programs focused on energy conservation. The city’s website refers only to federal grants for homeowners to do energy audits and retrofits.

Why should Toronto act on energy conservation for its legacy buildings? Below is a picture of the City of Vancouver taken using an infrared thermal imaging scanner. The yellow appearing in the image indicates where heat is leaking from surface areas. The biggest contributors are windows and doors, with roofs and walls coming in second. For Vancouver as in Toronto, the vast majority of buildings predate 1970 when building codes didn’t consider specifications focused on energy conservation.

This infrared image of the City of Vancouver, British Columbia, shows where conservation of energy improvements need to be applied. (Image credit: City of Vancouver)

Today in Canada, most energy consumed by residential and commercial properties gets used to heat spaces. And based on what we can see from infrared thermal images like the one above, a significant percentage of that energy for heating goes right out the windows, doors, roofs and walls.

Cities as environmental stewards and as the place where most of us live can do far more to mitigate climate change if they would focus on energy conservation to support residential and commercial property retrofits. That means putting in place programs to replace legacy windows and doors with energy-efficient ones. It means programs that subsidize insulating walls and ceilings.

The City of Denver and its Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency has a five-year plan featuring a Climate Protection Fund. The money is to help improve the energy efficiency of homes, offices and industrial sites. Public seed capital of $40 million established the program which has since attracted private contributions to help increase its capacity to achieve the goal of zero emissions in all legacy buildings by 2040.

The Canadian federal government’s 2030 Climate Emissions Plan has put aside $1 billion for a green buildings strategy that includes energy retrofits. This is the money that Toronto describes on its website covering energy-efficient upgrades for new windows, doors, and insulation up to $5,000 per homeowner. There is no money for multi-residential units or condominiums. And the city isn’t adding any more funds or trying to attract money from private contributions to make the program more effective.

In the face of climate change, this lack of smart urban policy needs to change. Addressing energy conservation in legacy buildings can do more for reducing energy demand which means less burning of fossil fuels, and help in mitigating climate change. This is needed now for the sake of future generations for the overall health of the planet and the people on it.

As for the current state of energy on the planet, the IEA report notes:

• A North American resurgence in oil production coming from the United States and Canada with the bulk of new energy in coming from unconventional sources including oil sands, and oil and gas shale.
• A resurgence in conventional oil production in Iraq as the infrastructure rebuild leads to new capacity following the Iraqi war.
• A retreat from nuclear following the disaster in Fukushima.
• More countries legislating energy efficiency.
• High oil and gas prices contributing to slowing the growth of the world economy.
• Record high CO2 emissions at 1.5 gigatons in 2011
• Renewable energy sources constrained by a lack of sustained government support.
• 1.3 billion still with no access to electricity today and 2.6 billion lack clean cooking facilities, more than half living in India, China and Bangladesh.
• Global energy demand growing faster in the Developing rather than the Developed World where demand is static.

The IEA crystal ball predicts by 2035 the following;

• Iraq will account for 45% of the growth in global oil production and the country will become the second largest exporter by the 2030s, overtaking Russia.
• Middle East oil’s destination will largely be Asia with North America becoming a net exporter of oil and liquid natural gas.
• Unconventional sources will be disruptive to traditional oil and gas suppliers changing trade patterns.
• Nuclear will increase as new fission and dual fission-fusion reactor technologies are perfected.
• While China, India, the European Union and Japan will see increases in oil imports, the United States will see a decline becoming a net exporter.
• Worldwide energy demand will increase by 70%.
• Half of the new global capacity will be filled by renewable energy sources with China the predominant market.
• Energy subsidies for renewables will continue to build capacity to meet long-term demand forecasts.
• The cost of electricity for domestic use will continue to climb globally.
• Access to water will be critical to assessing new energy projects.
• In the Developed World unrealized energy efficiency will be the single biggest factor in driving up any future demand unless governments implement measures to encourage and enforce conservation.
• Improved energy efficiency will contribute to stabilizing CO2 emissions but the world will see better than a 2 degree Celsius rise in average global temperatures well before 2035 based on current emission trends.
• Carbon capture and sequestration will contribute to 20% of required emission reductions but those results will happen not by 2035 but by 2050.
• 1 billion will continue to have no access to electricity with estimates of $1 trillion needed to eliminate this deficiency.

In conclusion the IEA predicts the need for energy producers to increase capacity by 5,890 GigaWatts, more than the total installed capacity currently in the World. One-third of the new capacity will replace existing power plants that will go out of service. Renewables will contribute 3,000 GigaWatts. Total investment will exceed $16.9 trillion. Of the investment in renewables, 22% will go to wind energy projects, 16% to hydro, and 13% to solar. By 2035 global demand for electricity will reach 32,000 TeraWatt Hours.