CISBAT 2007

Centred on research and development in solar energy applications to the built environment, the international conference CISBAT 2007 once more highlighted a good number of interesting technological innovations. The scientific discoveries and developments presented by researchers from five continents are all part of the effort to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions generated by buildings and many are due to play a role in reducing the human contribution to climate change. Some important events linked to this environmental issue of planetary dimension have marked this year and confirmed the pertinence of the CISBAT Conference. In February, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)1 backed up the fact that « warming of the climate system is unequivocal » and « is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (human) greenhouse gas concentration ». In March, the European Union presented its new renewable energy targets2, which stipulate that 20% of the overall energy requirements in Europe must be covered by renewable energies by the year 2020. The Swiss organisers of the CISBAT Conference, financially supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), therefore had no problem convincing their academic partners – Cambridge University (CU) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as well as their industrial partner – The Swiss Association for Windows and Facades (SAWF) – to collaborate in the organisation of this event on the EPFL campus. More than 170 participants from 30 different countries were present during the two conference days : no doubt they will be even more numerous at the next edition, given the dramatic evolution of the price of oil and the emergency national and international political structures are faced with.