Climate Change & Energy Efficiency in Buildings: How Does It Related?

[15/02/2016]

Climate Change & Energy Efficiency in Buildings: How Does It Related?

Remember the picture of polar bear that went viral last year? Or perhaps all these extreme natural disasters that hit us recently?

 
 
Yes, all these are connected to climate change. No joke. And don’t act like you are surprised when we said that WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR IT.
 
 
 
Climate change is a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.
 
The carbon emission will form layers of greenhouse gasses that caused the heat from the sun trapped within the earth, resulting the rise of the world’s temperature that speed up the change in the global climate.
 
 
 

Certain places are getting warmer and warmer and some are getting colder. Remember how happy we are when we heard our temperature will drop to 16 Celsius because we cant stand the heat now? Too bad it was just a hoax. However Bangkok temperature has dropped to 21 Celsius as of now, so its not impossible we will experience that temperature. You might be happy but this is not a good sign for the world’s climate.

But how are we responsible for it?

The third largest contribution to global carbon emission that caused climate change is the industrial sector, which probably one of the reasons why China is the biggest carbon emitters in the world.

 
 
The second contribution to the global carbon emission is the transportation sector. Do you remember how many times you travel by airplane each year? Now, lets narrow down our perspective and look at our neighborhood, you can see the average of 3 cars owned by 1 household. According to Nielsen Global Survey of Automotive Demand, Malaysia is the third highest car ownership in the world as 93% of the total population own at least a car. Can you imagine how a small country like Malaysia could even be in that rank? Since almost all of our vehicle rely on petrol and electric cars are not widely used in Malaysia, you might get a clearer picture of how this contribute to climate change and how are you responsible for the extreme heat that we’re experiencing right now.

Well, that’s just the second largest contribution for the global carbon emission. The highest contribution is from electricity and heat generation. In Malaysia alone, our electricity demand has reached 64GWh in 2013, which has emitted 47.42k kg/co2/GWh of carbon and this figure is increasing each year.

 
You might be thinking, I don’t consume that much energy at home compared to the 3-storey bungalow next door, without noticing that your refrigerator is on 24/7. The air-conditioner that you use day and night is not 5-star energy efficient and your conventional lights are on all the time. Not to mention we are building more and more commercial buildings and that consume even more energy compared to residential. This will speed up climate change if we are not pushing for energy efficient buildings. So now you know that you are contributing to climate change even in your sleep, are you ready to transform your house or your buildings to be energy efficient?
 
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