Focus areas
Where we work
Who is WhoUseful links
|
Kyrgyzstan Goes Green With New Construction Codes
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, November 2009-The Kyrgyzstan government plans to save more than 200,000 tons of fuel, thanks to new regulations on building construction. The initiative comes at a time when the Central Asian nation faces many potential changes due to global warming. The goal of the programme is to reduce country’s the energy consumption by roughly 45 percent over a three-year period, equal to almost half of one year of coal-mining in the country. Photo Album: Kyrgyzstan's Landscape and Lifestyle Could Change
The new standards are in accordance with European Union policy. In 2000, the EU named energy efficiency as the best way to establish energy security over the longer term. In addition, the "Climate Change 2007" report shows that conservation-minded construction of buildings is a key way to reduce global green house gas emissions by as much as 30 percent by 2020. Such emissions could radically alter Kyrgyzstan's future. Scientists say rising temperatures along with melting glaciers in the country's mountains could lead to increased desertification and land degradation. The resulting changes could then affect food production, water supplies and Kyrgyzstan's economy.
"Agricultural zoning to ensure food security; and more efficient use of water at household and state level needs to be implemented,” Zukhra Abaikhanova, a UNDP Kyrgyzstan environment adviser, told IRIN. She added that 90 percent of all water in the country is used for irrigation.
Poor infrastructure and Soviet-era building construction add to Kyrgyzstan’s environment issues. The new Kyrgyzstan/ UNDP project, known as “Energy Efficiency in Buildings”, aims to blunt that impact as much as possible. In Kyrgyzstan buildings account for 37 percent of total end use of energy in comparison with transportation – 29 percent— and industry —34 percent. Technical solutions already exist today for buildings with net or very low energy consumption, such as application of more efficient design, materials and equipment and integrating passive and active renewable energy in buildings. Inclusion of such applications during design and construction of new buildings, are therefore crucial to reducing the building future energy consumption.
To help with that process, the Kyrgyzstan government aims to promote energy efficiency requirements and standards in building codes as a part of its climate change mitigation efforts.
The project is part of a $15 mln (U.S) Global Environment Fund project under implementation in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The project helps integrate energy efficiency in on-going and future state-funded construction and renovation programs in public and residential sector by
• developing and strengthening enforcement of building energy performance codes and energy passports;
• building capacity of relevant government authorities, architects, and energy managers; and
• showcasing integrated building design approach through a number of demonstration projects in schools, hospitals and multi-apartment
residential buildings across the region.
-by Hugh Biggar
Recent Articles
[ more ]
|
What we do
UNDP Publications
Links & Resources |
|
 |
Copyright © 2012
United Nations Development Programme |
|
“By reducing buildings' energy consumption, a nation can reduce dependency on imported energy and strengthen its strategic position as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions and local pollution produced by the combustion of fossil fuels,” Marina Olshanskaya, a climate change adviser for the United Nations Development Programme, said.
