Roadmap for Energy-Efficient Buildings and Construction in ASEAN

Investing in energy-efficient and low-carbon buildings is a cost-effective way to reduce emissions and the use of fossil fuels, improve air quality and provide many
other benefits to households, society and governments. However, a significant scale-up in investment and changes in regulations will help to unlock these
potential benefits in ASEAN. The International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) 2019 report on Green Buildings outlines how investment opportunities in green buildings
are estimated at USD 17.8 trillion in East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia, representing over 70% of the global total

Yet, the investment potential remains largely untapped. The status of net zero and low-carbon buildings and the related building energy performance policies and
priorities vary greatly across the region, though most AMS have high-level strategies and targets in place for buildings’ energy efficiency. A number of AMS
have made progress in developing building energy codes and/or building standards, however, they are not always mandatory and often cover only part of
the buildings sector, for example large non-residential buildings. This partial coverage substantially limits their impact on the overall improvement of the
buildings sector’s energy performance. Given that building energy codes typically focus on new buildings, the energy performance of existing buildings or of those
undergoing major renovation is often not covered by energy efficiency regulation.