If a developed country wants to save fossil fuels, the easiest and hardest aspect is the urban environment. Buildings were built for many reasons but saving energy was the least important because fuel was relatively inexpensive. In the northeast a number of years ago, visited a friend whose house had almost no insulation from the cold. Once they renovated to put the insulation the house was livable during the winter. In the northeast, winter lasts at least 4 months and seemingly can last longer. There in lies the problem, to fix houses, renovation has to be done and to renovate means to move everything around, live through construction dust and debris and move everything back again.

In an article from Reuters, the European Parliament looked at the figure of buildings account for 40% of the European Union’s energy use. Most of that energy use is either directly by oil and gas or indirectly through the making of electricity. If buildings use less energy, the energy bills should be less and dependence on oil and gas imports will decrease.

The EU countries would need to renovate non-residential buildings to an E grade by 2027 and D by 2030. Residential buildings would follow later deadlines of E by 2030 and D by 2033.

Few disagree with the desire, how it be financed is a different issue.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in the above case construction renovations will have to be done to ensure buildings are energy efficient. There are many companies in the renovation business but they will need supplies – in the US you could point to Home Depot and Lowes as larger suppliers. It is possible to go through which companies’ products would be needed to achieve energy efficiency and determine how they should benefit from government regulations. As long as government convene, they will pass regulations or laws which means some companies benefit, looking at regulations as a positive is one method to like regulations.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.