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Originally Posted by KoeN
about 40% of all energy is being consumed in the built environment. my prediction is that bringing this number back shall have a priority in the western world, the next 20 years or so.
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Correct, and this is already happening. The easy bit is simply changing a countries building regulations - you can just insist that any new building adheres to certain standards. In the UK Part "L" of the Building Standards already requires certain insulation standards in the walls and roof of the dwelling, as well as certain heating requirements. I suspect that it'll eventually be a requirement of any new build to be carbon neutral, or something like that.
The much harder bit is to convert the existing buildings we've got. Certainly in the UK even the more dramatic forecasts on how many new properties we'll construct builds would mean something like 70% of existing buildings still being in use by 2050 or something like that. And making old properties so efficient is much harder to achieve - especially when there's no cavity to fill in the walls, they're not suitable for double glazing, etc.