The development of energy conservation policy of buildings in China: A comprehensive review and analysis

Energy conservation policies of buildings (ECPB) comprise combined governmental forces of national plans, laws and mandatory regulations of buildings, which have proved important contribution in improving energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. However, increasing the effectiveness of national policy is a challengeable task due to the complexities of historical, social, economic and environmental problems involved. Future policy designs of ECPB should be very careful and scientific from retrospect of their appeared achievements and problems from policies implemented in history. It is therefore important to fully understand the development of the ECPB, of particular note is the way the policy system has been progressively developed over time, which have not been formally and comprehensively studied yet. In this research, a chronological review method is first developed to review, retrospect and analyse the historical development, policy content, and policy effectiveness of China's building energy conservation. The aim of this review paper is to provide comprehensive information and analytical insights for both policymakers and scholars of building energy conservation researches. From this review research, the milestone policy and achievements of ECPB historical development are evaluated, and their policy barriers and possible improvements are discovered. Accordingly, this method can provide important knowledge to support and improve future policy design and policy system development in building energy conservation.