Residential Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Global Context for Local Action‪.‬

Abstract Despite the objectives stated in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have continued to rise. The residential sector is the second largest user of energy globally and was the sector with the fastest growing energy consumption in OECD countries during the early 1990s. The rate of growth would have been even faster without improved energy efficiency. The paper highlights the large-scale energy consumption and GHG emissions from the residential sector at the global, international and Canadian levels. Even when the Canadian residential sector is forecast to reduce its direct energy consumption through improved building and appliance standards, overall residential energy consumption is expected to continue to rise because of growing indirect demand for electricity to power a broader array of electronic devices, pumps and heaters. To reverse the trend of increased consumption, a focus on local projects is recommended. At the local level, the traditional divide in energy studies between technical and behavioural approaches can be overcome. An integrated Residential Energy Efficiency Project (REEP) is introduced for Waterloo Region in Canada where a broad network of community partners joined together to work towards the achievement of shared energy efficiency goals. The technical evaluation of 1,035 houses is complemented with the behavioural insights gained from 527 survey respondents. The recruitment and use of local partners enabled the project to achieve high participation rates.