Challenges and future directions for energy and buildings research

Introduction In 2007 Building Research & Information published a special issue on the challenges posed by climate change for the building stock. Its focus was well-timed in addressing technical strategies and government policy options for reducing carbon emissions. In the wake of the Stern Review (Stern, 2007) and then again with the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Metz et al., 2007), considerable international impetus existed for governments to move from broad carbon reduction targets to specific sectoral contributions to reduce energy demand, for instance by increasing the performance of new and refurbished construction via building regulations. Lowe’s (2007a) editorial in that special issue highlighted the need to consider energy supply and demand for the building stock as a system, and specifically the implications of decarbonizing the electricity supply in step with addressing energy demand in terms of the interactions influencing the choice and staging of options available to policy-makers.

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