How green are you?

Every day can be Earth Hour Day say Saatvika Rai and Sonja Koeppelu00a0 Millions of citizens around the world came together to support Earth Hour Day on March 28 An international event organised by WWF it is held on the last Saturday of March every year urging households and businesses to turn of their lights and electrical appliances for an hour And if you switched your lights off between 830930pm you have helped raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate changeu00a0 Saatvika Rai is a research associate with The Energy and Resources Institute TERI India and Sonja Koeppel is with United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in GenevaClimate change is caused by GHG emissions from all energy enduse sectors such as transport industry buildings agriculture etc However the building sector alone contributes onethird of all GHG emissions worldwide IPCC Energy efficiency including lighting and appliances is often seen as one of the cheapest options to reduce GHG emissionsu00a0 But what is stopping us from applying energy efficient measures One of the most important barriers is the higher purchasing cost of efficient equipment which many consumers either do not want to spend or cannot afford In the building sector tenants pay the energy bill but have no control over the building design and system Similarly the appliance manufacturers utilities do not have a direct interest in measures to reduce the clients energy use unless it helps increase their salesu00a0 The National Building Code of India 2005 NBC 2005 provides guidelines for regulating building construction activities across the country It serves as a model code for adoption containing administrative regulations development control rules and general building requirements Further the Ministry of Powers Bureau of Energy Efficiency has also developed the Energy Conservation Building Code 2006 The purpose of this code is to provide minimum requirements for the energyefficient design and construction of buildings Mandatory for commercial buildings and complexes codes for residential structures are only voluntaryu00a0 However like other developing countries political and structural barriers such as lack of government interest in energy efficiency insufficient enforcement of policies due to inadequate enforcement structures and institutions lack of qualified personnel and corruption in India have not allowed optimum tapping of this hidden potential in energy efficient buildings The societal costs of policy tools for green buildings vary between 214 tCO2 ie a significant net benefit to society and 109 tCO2 Appliance standards are projected to be especially costeffective with net societal benefits of 65tCO2 in 2020 in the United States and 194tCO2 in 2020 in the European Union However these small but easy opportunities for energy conservation are often ignored requiring us to make behavioural or lifestyle changesu00a0 For those of us looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprints a good way to start is by reflecting on our own houses appliances and lighting Using CFL lights not leaving appliances on standby mode and of course turning of electrical equipment when not in use are the beginning initiatives Let Earth Hour Day not be just a single day in a year but let our actions correspond to it every dayu00a0