Published on n.2/2013 of Magazine Qualenergia an article by Mauro Roglieri and Iris Visentin about LEED, GBC and more in general aboput the benefetis of adopting sustainability rating systems of buildings to reach CO2 reduction targets.
Full article in Italian: http://www.qualenergia.it/articoli/20130520-green-building-council-il-rating-edificio
Decreto Legislativo n.30 of 13th March 2013, transposes Directive 2009/29/EC (Emissions Trading) into Italian legislation.
Art. 2 defines in clearer terms the scope of work of the Directive, in particular in realtion with the waste incineration plants.
GSE is appointed to set up and manage the auctioning platform for allowances. Most of the content of the decree reflects changes already introduced in the past months in operative terms by specific resolutions of the National Competent Authority.
Started the 26th of November and ending the 7th of December, COP18, the 18th conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is being held this year in DOHA, Qatar.
Back in 1992, countries joined an international treaty, the UNFCCC, to cooperatively consider what they could do to limit average global temperature increases and the resulting climate change, and to cope with whatever impacts were, by then, inevitable.
The Kyoto Protocol, defined during COP3 in Kyoto, and entered into force in 2005, legally binds developed countries to emission reduction targets. The Protocol’s first commitment period started in 2008 and ends in 2012.
At COP17 in Durban, governments of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol decided for a second commitment period, from 2013 onwards, which could last 5 or 8 years.
In the last years, emissions of developing economies have doubled, becoming higher than those of developed countries. The urgency of coming to a new global agreement has been repeated many times this year by IEA, World Bank, PWC and many others, waiting for the publication of the fifth IPCC’s report. In fact, if we want to limit global warming to +2°C, we need to act now.
DOHA’s delegates need to work very hard during these two weeks, in order to sort out the three folowing main items:
The future agreement, based on ADP, needs to overcome distinctions between developing and developed economies (Annex I and non Annex I), if we really want to have some hope to meet the 2°C target (many think that we already missed this target).
Two weeks of very important work for the +10.000 delegates.
Sources: unfccc.int “DOHA Climate Change Conference”, David Hone “Expectations for COP18 in DOHA”, Carlo Carraro “AAA cercasi nuova architettura politica per il clima”.
On Friday 16/11/2012, the Italian National Authority for the Emissions Trading Directive has published on its web site the deliberation n.27/2012, which establish the obligation for the Italian ETS plants to present the emissions monitoring plan in the new EU format for the period 2013-2020.
The Italian plants have time untill January 31st 2013 to fill in the excel template and sumbit it to the ETS committee. Some more days are needed to decide for the ‘opt-out’ plants, which are still waiting a final decision for their ‘exclusion’ from the standard obligations.
Untill the 31st of december 2012, the monitoring of emissions continues as of deliberation 14/2009 as modified by 14/2010.
For more information about the EU monitoring dispositions and templates: EU ETS monitoring
The European Commission has adopted this summer the new regulations on monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and on verification and accreditation of verifiers under the EU Emissions Trading System, that will rule the third trading period of the EU ETS starting in January 2013.
The Italian ETS committee has approved the list of plants that fall within the scope of the Emissions Trading Directive, including the pre-allocation of free allowances (subject to EC review).
Operators of ETS plants will be asked in the coming months, to submit further documentation to align with the new regulation.
The contribution of the Environmental Ministry to the growth plan being discussed in these days by the Government after the summer holidays, has been published last week on the Ministry official website.
The framework described in the document is quite comprehensive and confirms the effort to put Italy back in track with the decarbonization of the economy addressed by several EU Directives. Various policies are already in place, but suffered in the past months of many delays in their actuation, due to conflicts of competences between different Governmental departments.The current technical Government could effectively help to solve several impasses.
For more information about the contribution (in Italian): http://www.minambiente.it/home_it/showitem.html?item=/documenti/comunicati/comunicato_0438.html&lang=it
MR Energy Systems, as a member of GBC Italia, is particularly glad to announce this event which will take place in Venice this coming Friday 22nd of June 2012. The important international event with the participation of international institutions as UNESCO and World GBC, and an exceptional speaker as Rick Fedrizzi, president of U.S. GBC and chair of World GBC.
The event intends to present the ambitious development of a protocol for the sustainability of Historic Building, where Italy (GBC Italia) will play a leadership role in the international context. The protocol has the aim of merging two very important concepts: the LEED® sustainability criteria on one side, and the enormous Italian knowledge of restoration and conservation of historic heritage. An innovative standard, with the aim of facilitating the culture of sustainability in the built environment, and the conservation and protection of values and culture. A tool which will make the dialogue between operators and public authorities easier and more measurable.
The registration to the event is free of charge until the end of available places.
“This is a big step ahead: for the very first time we have legally binding energy efficiency measures. Europe is now much better placed to achieve its 20% energy efficiency target for 2020”, Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger stated.
“The measures will reduce our energy bill while generating further growth and jobs. They stimulate investments and make our energy using products more efficient.”
“The European Parliament and the Council have played a constructive role in finding a compromise. It also shows Europe’s ability to act in difficult economic times.”
Yesterday evening, the European Parliament, the Council and the EU Commission reached a political agreement on the Energy Efficiency Directive. Today, Coreper endorsed the agreement. European Parliament and the Council still need to give their approval.
To read the complete memo from the EC, click here.
Italian Emissions Trading plants emitting less than 25.000 tons CO2/year and with a thermal energy input lower than 35 MW can opt-out from the ETS scheme and request to be admitted to a simplified management scheme for their CO2 emissions. The deliberation of the NAtional Competent Authority can be downloaded at the folowing link (Italian).
The deadline to present the request is Friday, 8th June 2012 @12 a.m.
See also on the same topic (only Italian):
24 04 2012 – Novità in arrivo per gli impianti ETS di dimensioni ridotte
GBC Italia took part to the meeting organized by UNECE on the 4th of April 2012; The delegation of GBC Italia was composed by Mauro Roglieri and Francesco Bedeschi, both members of the Executive Board of GBC Italia.
The participation to this prestigious meeting matches very well with GBC Italia’s mission of diffusing the knowledge of Green Building Rating Systems in the relevant National and International authorities, to support the promotion and diffusion of usage of protocols as a tool to drive building market transformation towards sustainability.
The objective of this seminar was to discuss cost-efficient and “green” solutions, which can make the housing sector more sustainable. These include improvements to energy efficiency, environmental performance (water and waste management), and resilience to climate change. Greening homes is a part of the green economy concept, which is in turn at the heart of renewed efforts to integrate environmental and social considerations within the mainstream of economic decision-making in the run-up to Rio+20 and beyond.
The seminar has being organized back to back with a meeting of the UNECE Working Group to discuss a possible framework convention on sustainable housing. More than 70 UNECE member state representatives attended the working group meeting. More than 30 participated to the seminar, which facilitated the identification of priorities for the preparation of the September 2013 Ministerial Conference on Housing and Land Management.
GBC Italia presented the ‘bottom-up’ role that Green Rating Systems such as GBC Home or LEED® can have as an accelerator of change.
Access to the UNECE event page: UNECE – Greening Homes
Download presentation: GBC Italia: how rating systems can drive the change
[Sources: UNECE, GBC Italia, MR Energy]
