Virkemidler i forhold til boligopvarmningen - en international analyse

Previous investigations have shown that substantial technical potentials exist for reductions in household energy consumption for space heating. Many policy instruments have been applied in order to realise these potentials within the last 25-30 years, for example building regulations, energy taxes, subsidies, and various general information schemes. The project has shown that not all of the policy instruments have had an effect, ie. reduced the consumption of energy. Building regulations have been introduced in all the countries involved in the investigation in order to reduce consumption of energy in newly constructed buildings. Differnces exist across the countries as to how restrictive the building regulations have been. In spite of this, it turns out that in all the countries the building regulations have had a significant influence on the consumption of energy in these new buildings compared to the existing housing stock. Taxes on energy for space heating have been introduced in most of the countries in the 1990's. In Denmark they were, however, introduced in the 1970's. In the project the direct effect of the taxes are investigated. The direct effect is measured as the effect of the energy tax for a given stock of heating technology. The direct effect can be interpreted as the effect that can be expected in the short run. The results indicate that the direct effect of the energy taxes has been very limited. This does, however, not rule out that significant long run effects may exist. Subsidies for investments in new space heating technology or insulation activities has applied to a limited extend in all the countries. In the analysis only minor effects can be traced from these. In the countries analysed general informational schemes in many cases have been applied. In general the effects of such schemes are very difficult to measure, and only in a few cases an attempt has been made to do that. One example of a general informational scheme is the Danish Energy Consultancy scheme. (Energikonsulentordningen). The effect of this scheme on the consumption of energy in apartment blocks has been analysed. The analysis indicate that the effect of this scheme has been limited. Generally, within the past 30 years substantial reductions in energy consumption per square metre for space heating has been obtained as a result of the applicaton of various policy measures. Our analysis indicate that this can be ascribed to the application of building regulations as far as the newly built housing stock is concerned. A great challenge for the future, however, is to obtain reductions in the consumption of energy for space heating in the existing housing stick