Policy for low carbon (energy efficiency) retrofit/renovation of residential buildings

A wide range of regulatory policy measures have been enacted around the world to improve the energy efficiency of new residential buildings. However, a large percentage of the existing residential building stock constructed prior to the appearance of these policy measures is appreciably less efficient than most newly constructed residences. Moreover, this stock will continue to use significant amounts of energy long into the future. This highlights the importance of programmes for building retrofits. However, there is uncertainty over the most effective policies that guide the refurbishment of the existing building stock. Our main objective was to rapidly locate and synthesize knowledge from scholarly peer reviewed literature, employing rapid meta-analytic approaches, to answer the question: What policies work or could potentially work to achieve low carbon outcomes from retrofit/renovation of residential buildings, to what extent do they work, and how is that measured? This rapid review identified common themes across the included studies which offer information for low carbon residential retrofit/renovation policy.