It’s going to happen and we’re nowhere near ready. Millions of homes and commercial buildings derive their heat source from burning fuel oil or natural gas. A lack of these resources precludes adequate heating with increasing swift shifts in extreme temperature due to climate change. So what happens when you can’t heat up commercial properties in major cities? They likely become abandoned.

Many cities have passed carbon mitigation goals to be met by 2025. Upgrades to the building envelope like insulation, green roofs, VFD for a/c motors, thermostatic controls of the hvac, submetering, lighting upgrades, energy audits, etc will give rise to greater building efficiency. They’re also keeping tabs on building progress by grading them through energy star and making them post their grades in a conspicuous location.

But does this prompt an immediate, effective reduction in emissions to the point we should be comfortable supporting this newly evolving, very prohibitively expensive market to help “save the world”?

No. The planet is burning and instead of directly addressing the damaging afflictions of our behavior we are focused on an exchange of wealth and turning renewables into a commodity.