The top performers on the Zero Carbon Index as a whole are Norway, Brazil and the UK, followed by China and Australia in joint fourth out of 34 countries, says the RICS Zero Carbon Capacity Index 2009 released recently.

 

The Index is based on three performance indicators:

1.      The consumption of energy in the residential, tertiary (commercial and public) and transport sectors

2.      Progress towards decarbonisation of energy supply defined by the share of renewable energy in total primary energy supply

3.      Government policy frameworks that promote carbon reductions in the built environment e.g. zero carbon buildings, building certification system, retrofitting energy insulation, sustainable public procurement policy, sustainable construction policy, green leases and spatial planning for reduced carbon emissions incorporating public transport/ development integration considerations; cycling and walking provisions; optimal urban densities.
     As expected, both USA and China were the largest consumer of energy and emissions of CO2.  Although China has exceeded those of the USA in emissions for the first time, it performed well on the ZC2 Index by ranking 4th among 34 countries.  In the energy consumption category, China is one of the five countries with the lowest residential energy consumption per capita along with Brazil (best performer), India, Mexico and Turkey.
     On the other side, China once again is one of the five countries with the lowest energy consumption in the tertiary sector along with Mexico (best performer), Luxembourg, India and Brazil. In terms of policy frameworks, Australia and UK were the top two performers, followed equally in place by China, Germany, Ireland and USA.  Overall the coverage of the identified policy measures is not good among the countries as a whole and a more comprehensive policy framework is clearly needed in order to create the built environment for sustainable buildings and other property assets at the international and national scale.
     Overall, China is ranked 3rd place in two out of three performance indicators: energy consumption for residential, tertiary & transport sectors and government policy. On the field of share of renewable energy in total energy supply, China is ranked 12th place, Japan at 27th place and Korea is the worst performer in this sector.