Home>POLICIES PROMOTING ENERGY RETROFITS IN THE BUILDINGS SECTOR
30 June 2026
POLICIES PROMOTING ENERGY RETROFITS IN THE BUILDINGS SECTOR
This student report was produced as part of the course 'The Future of European Energy Efficiency Policies' at Sciences Po and is one of a series of publications showcasing the work of students in the course. Through applied research and policy analysis, students explore the future of energy efficiency policies in Europe: How existing regulation could be updated and which additional policy measures could be taken.
By Manon Delporte, Guénolé Houitte de la Chesnais, Yuying Li, India Pietzsch-Lane and Jules Robin
Abstract
Buildings account for approximately 36% of final energy consumption and 40% of energy-related CO₂ emissions worldwide, yet global retrofit rates remain below 1% of the existing stock per year, far short of the 2–3% required for net-zero trajectories. With the aim of identifying good practices, this report examines energy efficiency retrofit policies across ten national and municipal case studies spanning Africa, Europe, North America, Latin America, and South-East Asia, using a pluralist methodology combining peer-reviewed literature with analysis of official programme documentation. Drawing on the IEA Energy Efficiency Policy Toolkit as a reference framework, each case is assessed across four dimensions: policy design, financing models, equity and accessibility, and monitoring, evaluation, and scalability.
Three cross-cutting findings emerge from this report. First, no programme achieves scale on financial incentives alone. The strongest policy outcomes all combine at least two policy pillars within a regulatory structure that makes inaction progressively costly. Programmes relying on a single instrument, such as Nigeria's framework-only approach or Thailand's market-driven ESCO model, consistently underperform. Second, monitoring and evaluation emerges as the most widespread gap: most programmes lack verified post-retrofit consumption data, and only Canada's evidence-based redesign of its national scheme demonstrates M&E driving meaningful policy correction. Third, equity remains structurally unresolved, with emerging economies facing the sharpest challenge at the intersection of energy poverty, informal tenure, and nascent financing markets. Taken together, these findings suggest that the central policy question is no longer which instrument to choose, but how to combine several into coherent, administratively simple, and locally adapted packages.