23/05-11   -   Press releases

Heat pumps in the building sector significantly reduce global carbon dioxide emissions

New roadmap from the International Energy Agency analysed in the latest newsletter from Heat Pump Centre.

How can we decrease the emissions of greenhouse gases by 50 %? What technologies are the most promising and how can they be promoted? These are some of the questions answered in the brand new publication from the International Energy Agency: Energy-efficient Buildings: Heating and Cooling Equipment. The roadmap is also the main topic of the IEA Heat Pump Centre’s latest newsletter.

The Energy-efficient Buildings: Heating and Cooling Equipment roadmap is the first IEA roadmap for the buildings sector. The overall aim is to advance global development and uptake of energy efficient and low/zero carbon heating and cooling systems so that the building sector plays its part in the global 50 % reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

Heat pumping is a key technology to achieve the world’s energy goals

“The world’s energy and climate problems are well known and the buildings sector is responsible for a very considerable proportion of greenhouse gas emissions. The new roadmap from IEA shows clearly that heat pumps are one of the key technologies in the solution to break this trend", says Dr Monica Axell, manager at the IEA Heat Pump Centre.

From this report, it is clear that heat pumps will have an important role to play in the transformation of the buildings sector outlined in the roadmap. However, although heat pumps are a mature technology for many applications/market segments, more R&D is required to reduce costs, improve performance and develop new products optimised for a wider range of applications. Furthermore, the report stresses the importance of the work of the IEA Implementing Agreements, such as the IEA Heat Pump Programme.

Urgent action is required

The report also says urgent action is required if the building stock of the future is to consume less energy and result in lower emissions, but it notes that there are widespread market barriers to the deployment of energy-efficient heating and cooling equipment. Governments can address this key challenge through policies that are both broad enough to address specific barriers and deep enough to reach all of the stakeholders in the fragmented building sector.

“In order to increase the pace of development and deployment of heat pumps for buildings and industries, we need to implement international long-term policies", says Dr Axell.

The Roadmap is analysed in IEA Heat Pump Centre Newsletter 2/2011

Thus, complementing and deepening the analysis in the Roadmap, regional overviews and accounts of policies are given for the different regions of the world. This issue also includes a market overview for Sweden, where the heat pump industry strengthens its position as the number one heating technology with more than 100 000 heat pumps sold last year.

The IEA HPC Newsletter is a quarterly newsletter/journal from the IEA Heat Pump Centre. Read the newsletter here:

www.heatpumpcentre.org/en/newsletter/

Contact
Contact Åsa Jardeby, +46 10 516 5085, asa.jardeby@sp.se, at the IEA Heat Pump Centre for press images and more information.

IEA Heat Pump Programme and IEA Heat Pump Centre

The IEA Heat Pump Programme (HPP) is a non-profit organisation under which the participants cooperate in projects in the field of heat pumps and related heat pumping technologies such as air conditioning, refrigeration and working fluids (refrigerants). The IEA Heat Pump Programme operates under the International Energy Agency (IEA) and was founded in 1978. The current member countries are Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.

HPP carries out a strategy to accelerate the use of heat pumps in all applications where they can reduce energy consumption for the benefit of the environment. The IEA Heat Pump Centre (HPC) is the international information service of the HPP. HPC links people and organisations worldwide in support of heat pump technology. Read more: www.heatpumpcentre.org