Barriers of implementing Clean Development Mechanism in South Africa: Building energy efficiency projects

Implementation of energy efficiency measures in buildings demonstrate significant reduction in energy usage, thus contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions. Buildings are responsible for more than one third of total energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions in society, both in developed and developing countries [1]. "Worldwide, 30%- 40% of all primary energy is used in residential and public buildings" [2]. The opportunities for implementation of building energy efficiency in South Africa are widespread, including commercial buildings, residential buildings, and public buildings. Although there is widespread awareness of and discussion around carbon finance as a potential revenue stream, none of the building retrofitting projects by the government sector have reached the stage of submitting a project proposal to the Designated National Authority. The principal objective of this paper is to analyse the shortcomings in application of CDM in energy efficient building projects in South Africa.