Abstract

The uncertainty surrounding global warming impacts and solutions requires innovative approaches to creating and implementing new climate protection policies. Since these policies will evolve over time, the most successful climate protection solutions of the future are essentially undetermined. Still, the magnitude of potential climate change impacts on our economies and ecosystems demands that governments begin taking precautionary measures. A policy design that includes periodic opportunities for change offers an alternate path recognizing the need to establish new policies in the near-term that can adapt over time, as uncertainties become certainties. The City of Portland's High Performance Green Building Policy proposes a market-based instrument with the adaptive capacity to maintain environmental effectiveness, economic efficiency and social equity while promoting the rapid emergence of highly energy efficient and carbon-eutral buildings.

Paper

Download this paper as pdf: Paper

Panels of

Market Transformation: Taking Efficiency Mainstream

Utility Regulation, Strategies, and Policies

Residential Buildings: Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation

Visions of the Future: Big New Ideas for Energy Efficiency

Energy and Environmental Policy: Planning for Greater Impacts

Sustainable Communities: Systems Integration at the Community Scale

Residential Buildings: Technologies, Design, Performance Analysis, and Building Industry Trends

Commercial Buildings: Program Design, Implementation, and Evaluation

Human and Social Dimensions of Energy Use: Trends and their Implications

Strategies for Appliances, Lighting, Electronics, and Miscellaneous End–Uses

Commercial Buildings: Technologies, Design, Performance Analysis, and Building Industry Trends