Facilitating Low-Carbon Transition of Existing Buildings-Examining China’s Multilevel Innovation Policy Mix

Abstract

Existing building stock consumes a tremendous amount of energy, which indicates low-carbon urban development not only requires the use of clean energy technologies in new construction, but also needs the energy retrofits of existing buildings. Government policies play a significant role in facilitating energy retrofits, but little is known in terms of how central and local governments address energy retrofits. By taking China as an example, this study examines the national and regional policy instruments employed for decarbonization retrofits of existing buildings. Two cities, namely Shanghai and Beijing, and six provinces, namely Guangdong, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Shandong, Zhejiang and Tibet are examined. This study reveals that not only technology transfer from more developed regions to underdeveloped regions are necessary to facilitate national building energy transition, which has been proposed by various previous studies, but also experience in policy instrument development and design also needs to be transferred to underdeveloped regions, which has largely been ignored by previous studies. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the regional policy heterogeneity and multilevel innovation policy mix of low-carbon transition in existing buildings.