Climate change is recognized as a major and long term threat to the planet and international agreements have been sought to take the first steps to address the issue. Concrete measures have been taken in the European Union to target the energy efficiency of buildings because they are major contributors to CO2 emissions and also because there are many sources which show that these measures are very cost competitive compared to other measures to reduce CO2 emissions. In terms of Sustainable Development, the greatest challenge today is that of climate change. How can the world’s population continue to develop economically, socially and environmentally, with the direct implication of ever increasing energy use and without the consequent build-up of the emissions of greenhouse gases? More than 90% of today’s energy relies on carbon-based fossil fuels. This is a true sustainable development issue since actions are required now which will be to the ultimate benefit of future generations.

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