Low carbon technology is advancing. Government policy throughout the world needs to achieve considerable reductions in CO₂ emissions over a relatively short time scale to avoid catastrophic climate change.  The built environment needs to play a major role in CO₂ reductions and needs to be addressed at a large scale.

A broad set of issues have a significant impact on the successful adoption of new technologies and processes on a larger scale to create a low carbon built environment, including a lack of flexibility and shortage of skills in the supply chain, a misunderstanding of capital and operational costs, where technologies can be implemented, the impact on quality of life and policy and planning for the future. These need to be understood to enable technologies to be widely applicable and transferable within and between regions.

This Action will investigate the drivers and barriers that may impact on the long term creation of low carbon regions in Europe. It will identify what can be done to assist the large scale implementation of low carbon technologies and processes. The main focus will be on new and retrofit of existing buildings, their operation, embodied energy and potential for using low and zero energy supply.