Publication: Unlocking Efficiency: The Global Landscape of Building Energy Regulations and Their Enforcement
Loading...
Published
2025-04-16
ISSN
Date
2025-04-16
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report, developed by the World Bank’s Global Indicators Group, provides a comprehensive analysis of building energy codes (BECs) across 88 countries, highlighting their critical role in driving energy efficiency and sustainable development. With buildings accounting for 37 percent of global CO2 emissions, the adoption and enforcement of BECs are essential to achieving climate goals under the Paris Agreement. The study examines the evolution of BECs from simple prescriptive requirements to sophisticated performance-based standards, emphasizing their potential to reduce energy consumption, improve resilience, and generate economic benefits. Key findings reveal significant disparities in BEC adoption and enforcement, with high-income countries demonstrating near-universal implementation while rapidly urbanizing regions in Africa and South Asia lag behind. The report underscores the importance of passive design strategies, such as thermal transmittance standards for building envelopes, and highlights critical gaps in retrofitting existing buildings and phasing out fossil fuel heating systems. Recommendations focus on tailored implementation strategies, enhanced enforcement mechanisms, and leveraging financial incentives to bridge the gap between policy and practice. By providing actionable insights, this report aims to catalyze global efforts toward energy-efficient and climate-resilient buildings, ensuring that construction decisions made today contribute to long-term sustainability.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2025. Unlocking Efficiency: The Global Landscape of Building Energy Regulations and Their Enforcement. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/43079 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Development and Climate Change : A Strategic Framework for the World Bank Group(Washington, DC, 2012-06)The framework provided a road map for climate action for the World Bank Group (WBG) over fiscal years 2009-11, setting out the WBG's objectives, principles, areas of focus, and major initiatives in the field of climate change. The framework was organized around six action areas: 1) supporting climate actions in country-led development processes; 2) mobilizing additional concessional and innovative finance; 3) facilitating the development of market-based financing mechanisms; 4) leveraging private sector resources; 5) supporting accelerated development and deployment of new technologies; and 6) stepping up policy research, knowledge, and capacity building. Climate change is one of the multiple stressors that affect the environment and impact on income and welfare. Further, its impact is worsened by other environmental damages. Looking ahead, strategies to combat climate change have to account for the continued need for rapid growth in developing countries. In this context, the World Bank is now looking at climate change in a holistic manner, bringing together climate change efforts with work on growth and broader management of natural resources and pollution. The WBG has successfully worked with clients and partners to mainstream climate considerations into the WBG's core business and strategies to reach impact on the ground. Yet this remains a make-or-break decade for climate action despite escalating levels of engagement within and outside the WBG.Publication Western Balkans : Scaling Up Energy Efficiency in Buildings(Washington, DC, 2014-06)Within the six countries of the Western Balkans, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia, energy efficiency (EE) is increasingly seen as a key pillar in national energy strategies, helping to enhance energy security, contribute to economic growth, and ensure environmental sustainability. This is for several reasons. EE can reduce the region's heavy reliance on expensive imports, enhance competitiveness and job creation, and reduce the impact of widespread fossil fuel use. EE can also bring important social benefits, helping to improve local air quality (mitigating related adverse health impacts), improve indoor comfort levels through improved heating, and make energy more affordable for low-income families. Finally, EE is seen as a critical tool in helping to mitigate the effects of necessary and planned tariff reforms by offsetting the higher energy costs to the entire economy. To realize these benefits, the Western Balkans countries will have to shift from broad policies and small-scale pilots to scaled-up financing and implementation. There is an urgent need to develop viable financing models in all sectors, as well as suitable delivery mechanisms, information systems, and necessary secondary legislation, in order to meet national targets and fuel economic development in a more sustainable manner. Buildings, which account for almost half of energy use in the regions, have been identified as a key sector in all of the country EE plans.Publication Towards a Sustainable Energy Future : The World Bank Group's Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Action Plan(Washington, DC, 2004-06-30)The challenge for the development community is to exploit the links between energy and poverty to combat global poverty. The human scale of this challenge is huge. Today, 1.6 billion people lack access to electricity and 2.4 billion rely on traditional biomass for cooking and heating. Indoor air pollution is among leading causes of illness and death in developing countries. It leads to 2 million premature deaths a year. In 2004, the richest 20 percent of the world s population consume 58 percent of total energy, while the poorest 20 percent consume less than 4 percent. The majority of those underserved are the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. With increasing populations, 25 years from now, business-as-usual energy scenarios project that even after an expenditure of 16 trillion US dollars on energy investments of which half will be in developing countries, 1.4 billion people will still lack access to electricity. This is a reduction of only 200 million people from today. Over 2.6 billion people in developing countries will continue to rely on traditional forms of biomass for cooking and heating in 2030, even more than today. This scenario expects renewable energy share to increase from 2 percent to 3 percent between 2000 and 2030. Under this scenario, by 2030, the more than doubling of coal, oil and gas consumption will lead to increases in greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector. The impacts will affect the developing countries the most, and hence rendering the poor more vulnerable. Projected impacts are increased deaths and risk of infectious disease epidemics; increased floods, mudslides and coastal and soil erosion; increased property and infrastructure damage; decreased crops, higher crop damages and a general drop in agricultural productivity.Publication The Energy Efficient Cities Initiative Practitioners' Roundtable(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-11)Cities represent a major contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to the United Nations Population Fund,1 half of the world's population now lives in cities and is responsible for 75% of global energy use and GHG emissions. Since the world's population will continue to grow, and rapid urbanization will continue particularly in the developing world, tackling climate change issues in the urban context will be essential. In response to these challenges, the World Bank's Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), in cooperation with the Bank?s Finance Economics and Urban Department (FEU), has launched an Energy Efficient Cities Initiative, which is designed to help mainstream and scale-up sustainable energy and climate change mitigation actions and investments in the urban context. The first activity proposed under this Initiative is the Energy Efficient Cities Practitioners Roundtable, a facilitated discussion cohosted by ESMAP and FEU. The purpose of this event was to bring together client cities and partner organizations to investigate ongoing initiatives and programs to support cities' sustainable energy goals needs and develop an Energy Efficient Cities Action Plan that will outline a vision and subsequent actions to be taken under the Initiative. The event took place at the Washington DC offices of the World Bank, from October 20-21, 2008.Publication Monitoring Climate Finance and ODA(Washington, DC, 2010-01)The first major part of this paper focuses on tracking, monitoring, and reporting various types of flows, primarily from ODA (Official Development Assistance) and other public sources but also from private sources. It briefly reviews available information on various current and upcoming financial and investment flows to support climate action in developing countries as a first step in assessing the challenges associated with monitoring such flows. It considers both climate finance (the amount of additional resources required to catalyze the shift of a much larger volume of public and private development investments to climate friendlier options) and underlying finance (the almost 10 to 20 times larger amount of financial and investment flows in developing countries that must increasingly focus on climate action). The next part of the paper focuses on possible ways of tracking additionality in ODA flows, with the aim of stimulating a discussion within the World Bank Group (WBG) and its partners on this issue. It describes the various perceptions of different groups of countries as well as possible baselines, benchmarks, and tools for tracking progress. Increasingly reliable, comprehensive, and transparent reporting is needed to demonstrate that new climate finance instruments are not introduced at the expense of those targeting other objectives. The final section provides proposals for further action by industrial and developing countries, the U.N. system and multilateral development banks (MDBs).
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Global Economic Prospects, June 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-10)The global economy is facing another substantial headwind, emanating largely from an increase in trade tensions and heightened global policy uncertainty. For emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), the ability to boost job creation and reduce extreme poverty has declined. Key downside risks include a further escalation of trade barriers and continued policy uncertainty. These challenges are exacerbated by subdued foreign direct investment into EMDEs. Global cooperation is needed to restore a more stable international trade environment and scale up support for vulnerable countries grappling with conflict, debt burdens, and climate change. Domestic policy action is also critical to contain inflation risks and strengthen fiscal resilience. To accelerate job creation and long-term growth, structural reforms must focus on raising institutional quality, attracting private investment, and strengthening human capital and labor markets. Countries in fragile and conflict situations face daunting development challenges that will require tailored domestic policy reforms and well-coordinated multilateral support.Publication Business Ready 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03)Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.Publication The Container Port Performance Index 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-18)The Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) measures the time container ships spend in port, making it an important point of reference for stakeholders in the global economy. These stakeholders include port authorities and operators, national governments, supranational organizations, development agencies, and other public and private players in trade and logistics. The index highlights where vessel time in container ports could be improved. Streamlining these processes would benefit all parties involved, including shipping lines, national governments, and consumers. This fourth edition of the CPPI relies on data from 405 container ports with at least 24 container ship port calls in the calendar year 2023. As in earlier editions of the CPPI, the ranking employs two different methodological approaches: an administrative (technical) approach and a statistical approach (using matrix factorization). Combining these two approaches ensures that the overall ranking of container ports reflects actual port performance as closely as possible while also being statistically robust. The CPPI methodology assesses the sequential steps of a container ship port call. ‘Total port hours’ refers to the total time elapsed from the moment a ship arrives at the port until the vessel leaves the berth after completing its cargo operations. The CPPI uses time as an indicator because time is very important to shipping lines, ports, and the entire logistics chain. However, time, as captured by the CPPI, is not the only way to measure port efficiency, so it does not tell the entire story of a port’s performance. Factors that can influence the time vessels spend in ports can be location-specific and under the port’s control (endogenous) or external and beyond the control of the port (exogenous). The CPPI measures time spent in container ports, strictly based on quantitative data only, which do not reveal the underlying factors or root causes of extended port times. A detailed port-specific diagnostic would be required to assess the contribution of underlying factors to the time a vessel spends in port. A very low ranking or a significant change in ranking may warrant special attention, for which the World Bank generally recommends a detailed diagnostic.Publication Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-05)Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The digital sector has become a powerhouse of innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Value added in the IT services sector grew at 8 percent annually during 2000–22, nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Employment growth in IT services reached 7 percent annually, six times higher than total employment growth. The diffusion and adoption of digital technologies are just as critical as their invention. Digital uptake has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.5 billion new internet users added from 2018 to 2022. The share of firms investing in digital solutions around the world has more than doubled from 2020 to 2022. Low-income countries, vulnerable populations, and small firms, however, have been falling behind, while transformative digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) have been accelerating in higher-income countries. Although more than 90 percent of the population in high-income countries was online in 2022, only one in four people in low-income countries used the internet, and the speed of their connection was typically only a small fraction of that in wealthier countries. As businesses in technologically advanced countries integrate generative AI into their products and services, less than half of the businesses in many low- and middle-income countries have an internet connection. The growing digital divide is exacerbating the poverty and productivity gaps between richer and poorer economies. The Digital Progress and Trends Report series will track global digitalization progress and highlight policy trends, debates, and implications for low- and middle-income countries. The series adds to the global efforts to study the progress and trends of digitalization in two main ways: · By compiling, curating, and analyzing data from diverse sources to present a comprehensive picture of digitalization in low- and middle-income countries, including in-depth analyses on understudied topics. · By developing insights on policy opportunities, challenges, and debates and reflecting the perspectives of various stakeholders and the World Bank’s operational experiences. This report, the first in the series, aims to inform evidence-based policy making and motivate action among internal and external audiences and stakeholders. The report will bring global attention to high-performing countries that have valuable experience to share as well as to areas where efforts will need to be redoubled.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.