 Thank you. So it's my task to keep you awake after lunch. We'll give it a try. I was asked to mainly address the build environment and retrofitting, so I will start with that and then show you what we really should do. Here is the... Go forward. Yes. This is a project in 2011. I initiated with the Social Housing Corporation to retrofit 150 houses to near-zero energy. Zero energy, near-zero energy. And to do it fast. So we started doing that, like a renovation train. We went along the houses. Each day we moved up one house first dismantling the old facade and roof and then building up it again in 10 days it was done and then this was the result and these were, you know, 150 houses in 160 days retrofitted to near-zero energy. So that started a discussion in the Netherlands. So if we can do it in 10 days per house, that was... Can we do it in... Oh, here's my screen. Can we do it also in three or two days or in one day? And can we bring the cost down? The performance, of course, should be guaranteed. The problem was there were too many workers in the houses because we did the retrofits while the house stayed inhabited. Et cetera, et cetera. So it's a paradigm shift in functioning of the retrofit market. Many initiatives were taken. One was called Stromversneling River Rapid to organize the building sector in developing more of these concepts. And it was quite successful. We did a lot of houses prototyping and later more series and these are all zero energy. Retrofitted in one day with prefab panels, prefab roofs. Here you see an example of such a house when it's open. First, the old facade is taken off. In this case sometimes the old facade remains. In this case it was taken off and you see still the bedroom on the left there is open. So at five o'clock the new panels are in and people are happy again. Here you see one picture of such house and I have a short video about this Simon. I should say, can you start the video? And this is one of the concepts we apply by Volker Wessels. Here you see the prefab panels getting shipped. The measuring is done by point clouds before of course to make the panels exactly on size. Here you see how they start preparing for the anchors for the new elements and then the panels leave the factory. They arrive early in the morning so it's still dark. That was the column with all the new installation equipment. You see they lift out the panels in front of the facade and then it's placed precisely on the anchors. And then all the other elements follow. Here is the new installation equipment which is placed outside the house, not inside to avoid workers going in. And they all only need to make the connections. And this is of course the facade gets a bit thicker so here they finish the window frames. The roof is getting up. So you see the old roof is still there except for the tiles. And it's a shame it's a steel roof it shouldn't be done like that. I mean we could avoid using steel here and using less resources with less impact with okay. It's different types. And then this was a corner house so this is a bit more difficult to of course insulate the big facade on the corner as well. And you see nowadays they do it without scaffolding. So this is still some scaffolding but this house gets an extra extension. So it's becoming a bit bigger. That's an extra it's not necessary but it's an extra. Last panels go up. And then the white column is the insulation tower with heat pumps and one water heating and ventilation unit. And then it's ready. Yes Simon you can continue. Next slide. All right so yes what we have to do of course it's still too expensive. Well what's expensive you know if we have a climate crisis but anyway they want they want to have it more cheap. So that's what we are doing now and we've done hundreds of these houses and it's still progressing. And indeed of course whatever retrofit concept you choose the result is good so far. All these houses are zero energy and the energy amount is reduced drastically as well. And the energy payback is within five or ten years you know for all the investments you made in energy in in retrofitting the building. And you might even in the over the longer time earn some money from it. But the point is don't try this at home. And I will explain you why because you know on the house of on the scale of one house it's perfect but if you create a zero energy house you know the energy is not the problem anymore. What you do is you bring in a lot of materials to generate energy and to reduce demand. So in fact it has become a materials problem. The energy is not a problem anymore. It's it's it's free it's solar energy. A solar panel is materials that accidentally produce some energy as well. So what we did we investigated four houses older houses 60s and we said okay what if we do don't do anything just provide the energy by a lot of PV panels. What in case B happens if we just insulate the cavity wall and bring in double glass and then a limited amount of PV panels what if we do one layer of outside insulation in KC and what if we do a passive style renovation in KSD you know like we saw complete prefabricated new roofs and then we said okay let we look at the energy investments there and of course they're all for zero energy so operational energy is not an issue anymore it's only about embodied energy and then we see that the option B with the cavity wall and and the double glazing only has the best performance from an energy impact point of view. It has the lowest overall impact what we do is we try to insulate houses to level D but from energy point of view that's not the best option you know the so you always have to evaluate more options to see where the best solution lies for you so it's not by the definition that extreme reduction is the best strategy passive house is not also by definition the best strategy you need more concept calculations it's about net zero CO2 which includes the materials. A second observation is that we have a emergency as already was years ago published scientifically in the paper by Hansen and colleagues which was very special at the time so we developed a buildings carbon budget panel which produced a report and we looked at how much carbon budget do we have and what is available for the building sector and what can we do with that budget and as you know there is the IPCC show that there is a maximum budget that we can emit for large part has already been used up in the past 100 years and the remaining quota is about 800 gigatons now if we share that budget equally over the world then the Netherlands has about a half a ton gigaton of CO2 equivalents in the one and a half degree scenario and two gigatons in the two degree scenario well build environment is about 40 percent of emissions and the housing sector about 20 percent of that so that gives us 0.1 gigaton of CO2 emissions for the housing sector in the one and a half scenario and 0.4 in the two degree scenario now what if we would retrofit all the houses in the Netherlands as we have seen in a small video and we add up the materials impact from that retrofit which is seven billion houses in the Netherlands if we add that up we get to 0.18 gigaton CO2 in materials investments and under the one and a half degrees we have only 0.1 it's not a solution we can't afford to retrofit all houses to zero energy in the complete makeover concept it's impossible if we take our CO2 budget series you always have to make the CO2 calculations so that's not an option and even you know if we would in this case retrofit 100 000 houses a year which is already more than the construction industry can handle then you will see that you know of course these houses become zero energy but 99 percent after one year is still emitting the normal amount of CO2 and you see that after 11 years or 12 years we cross the maximum budget already not because we are retrofitting because but because there is a large amount of non-retrofitted houses still there and if we do this by six percent of the stock each year 450 houses then we could maybe stay within the two-degree budget but not within the one and a half budget so we have to find other ways we can't afford to bring all houses to zero energy in the maximum makeover concept we can bring them to zero energy you just switch off everything of course but but not by investing a lot of other things so then there's a third reason you know because CO2 is an effect a side effect of what we do it's not the cause of all what we do the causes are consumption of resources and just to show you here uh left top you see the fresh water per capita in the world it's still declining we are now at five thousand nine hundred but it's going down this is biodiversity going down this is land per capita going down and this is the saturation of ores going down all over the world so you know it's not oh CO2 is not our only problem it's the most pressing at the moment and to have a closer look at the materials if if the ore grades decrease you know they will not get lost the world will not lose materials but they get diluted and so if the ore grades decrease then the energy goes exponentially up to get the same amount of resources back so copper mines were once 20 saturated with copper now it's up to a half percent if it goes to zero point 25 percent it's four times the energy we need to to harvest the same amount of copper so we can invest a lot in smart technology and using a lot of copper but you know we face our real problem is the materials not the energy and just to give you a small example that everybody will understand you may have a laundry dryer and now what today we think now you know we're going to lease one we're not going to buy one owning is old we're going to lease one or you say well we produce it in a circular way from scrap steel or something so we're doing a good job you know we're sustainable circular economy and things but you still have a laundry dryer and what you have to do then because fossil fuels is impossible we have to build wind turbines to run these laundry dryers so every laundry dryer requires wind energy or are we going just to put the clothes on the line again and let the wind do directly the work yeah this is the choices we have to face yeah and I made a little calculation for laundry dryers in the Netherlands we need 620 windmills a land-based two two megawatt windmills 620 only to run the laundry dryers and some other things all electric doorbells requires 46 windmills and it's all materials that has to be produced with the energy again etc etc so conclusions you know making zero energy for infirmishment yes but seek for the optimal balance of resources of measures between renewable energy production and reducing the demand and start with reducing demand of course and behavior use materials with very low impact reduce demand by addressing the use of the house or building and behavior and I was the your minister this morning said also that we should change behavior change our living styles and compact living and I was very happy hearing him say that it's not very often that politicians address behavior but that's where we have to aim for and of course low tech solutions so instead of the full makeover on the left top you know we have to go more or less to a concept like this summer winter house where we only insulate and heat a small area of the house for the period that it freezes outside in the Netherlands it's maybe two weeks that we have freezing temperatures outside so why should we pack the house as if it freezes 365 days a year that's complete nonsense in my view so and I had a little exercise in behavior and and energy reduction by demand and behavior with the university in Maastricht they invited me and and and we said okay let's start but we reduction instead of production first and this is a few things that we could sing off you know flex temperature concept the corridors said we can be unheated you know flex space complex lecture plans in day blocks and heated only part of the day so that you don't need to heat the house building 24 hours because you have a mess of organization in your lectures so flex time concept in winter working from 12 to 8 in the evening so that the sun can heat up the building in the morning and in summer we we work from 7 to 3 in the afternoon so that you know we can go home when it gets to health and also we propose to have a holiday in January and February instead of July and August for the academic year etc etc so we have to become very creative in how we live and organize our built environment and then there's one other thing we found out the whole carbon budget that is left is needed to retrofit the buildings and houses that we have that means that every new building you know is not allowed to increase our problem yeah it should should not be allowed to increase the CO2 emissions that means in fact that it has to meet the building regulations that will be applicable in 2050 when we are supposed to be net zero CO2 levels yeah it was quite you know I was quiet as well when we discovered that this in fact should be that way otherwise you know every new building that adds CO2 increases our problem instead of helping us out well and and even the IPCC did this was last week on a conference to meet the one and a half degree climate targets every building should be at least zero energy have the materials use materials that source you to and phase out concrete and steel in production and she forgot to say aluminium because that that has 10 times more impact than steel even and we don't need it in construction of course aluminium not at all and so this was vice chair of work group three that stated this in this conference and it can be completely different maybe you know this building in Braggans in Austria it has no heating equipment and no ventilation equipment it's it's functioning completely on the internal load of people and computers and coffee machines and is designed such that over the whole year the indoor temperature is between 22 and 26 degrees has no equipment at all saves a lot of metals and materials invest a little bit more materials of course in the walls are a bit sicker but you know I don't say this is the solution but we have to think out of the mind to get in that direction and these tools lead bring and all the others they won't help you because they pack CO2 and energy into a hundred categories of measures that should be taken if we want to reduce you to measure CO2 and optimize for CO2 because all our prosperity we enjoy today is based exclusively on fossil fuels which we want to phase out and that means that we have really to make drastic measures we're having a little party the past 100 years and maybe another 10 20 years with fossil fuels around the year 2000 but before we live from solar energy and afterwards we will have to live from solar energy the future is in our past to learn from and materials are what we have to address mainly there and there is much more to tell this book is just out last week I have a few copies with me to read for you and I hope it helps a discussion also for Ireland to see how best to go forward in this discussion thank you very much thank you very much Professor Rovers we might take a seat and have a quick conversation if that is okay with you unfortunately time is always going to be too short but that is I mean there was so much to take in there and an awful lot of detail should we be considering the the whole point of retrofitting if that's actually going to negate our carbon footprint in any way the complete house makeover retrofitting style that we should should reconsider yeah it might be an option in some cases but in most cases not I think the first thing you should do if you want to improve in your housing situation is to see where you can reduce demand without technologies your lifestyle how you use the rooms etc you know first look at your kitchen and dining room maybe you know during winter when it's a few weeks cold you just retract in those rooms and don't use the other ones and don't heat them switch off the heating for the rest of the house okay you know it's a few weeks of living there and apparently I think even socially it can be very interesting to to be back on the same table again instead of you know interneting or twittering in different rooms so again it comes back to the behavioral changes that we need to make in our own space in our own life living style yes yes how about on a grander scale if we were to think about building new homes and again we'll go back you know there's a lot of talk about that in Ireland at the minute when we're building new homes what do you think are the key things that we really need to keep in mind so obviously materials are at the core of that but should we be also thinking about you know making sure that those houses are up to a certain standard in terms of keeping heat in all of those kinds of things or is that an arc cake well it is the problem it's a bit of a dilemma I agree I mean but but but if a new building adds to our CO2 problem I mean it doesn't help much of course so we should make sure that our in total not one building but in total what we do in the building sector in the country that it does not add to our problem and so in the Netherlands I already proposed to politicians you know we should have a policy that we reduce living space I mean everybody in the Netherlands has about 60 square meters now available well it should go down to 35 meters a person and then no new construction is needed because we have a lot of empty space then you know so if you do something with tax measures there you can machine avoid that you have to build a lot of new construction okay and and like in my case my children left my house so you know the whole second floor is in fact free I don't use that anymore so I should move to a smaller house so that a big family can come in my house or I should rent out the second floor you know and prevent having another apartment to be built you know and this of course you can't directly enforce but with with with tax measures and subsidies etc you can you of course stimulate that this trend starts beginning I have a couple of questions in that are based on the Netherlands and I'll bundle them in together if you don't mind one person's asked what's the predominant fuel source for home heating and hot water in the Netherlands and that might actually relate back to it was a previous question on Slido asking if Ireland should look at I think it was like an underground heating system and on a larger scale and not just home by home so perhaps that that that links in there and another person asks an interesting question if we're going to have to evacuate coastal cities that are going to be underwater should we bother retrofitting houses that will probably be underwater in a couple of years time anyway so that's another existential question and a bigger question for climates where artificial cooling is needed because air conditioning in other countries I mean it takes up so much energy what strategies would you suggest for that rather than thinking about the countries where it's going to be really cool well if we talk about cooling in Ireland or Netherlands we should just forbid it you know at least in housing and we can do without I mean it was where I live this summer it was 40 degrees first time in history in the Netherlands 40 degrees and by passive measures you know keeping the sun out things like that night cooling I could keep it to 27 in my house which was pretty good living I mean it's warm but not not uncomfortable warm so that you can do that you can buy a cool air conditioning of course but it's not needed that you should stimulate you know passive measures yeah we're below sea level at least where I live I'm 20 meters above sea level with a reason yeah I'm sure you weren't good to buy a house just anywhere yeah but you know half of the country is below sea level and I think it's a taboo in the government to address that issue because if they're wise they would not invest there anymore but the soon the moment you say that of course the whole market collapses and the economy is a mess so I think that's a dilemma how to address these issues but there are some market parties already addressing these issues and moving out silently without letting publish about it but it's already starting so it's not very wise but well I suppose they won't give up and then we'll have to see how we handle that unfortunately we don't have a huge amount of time and so I wanted to ask you more about you know the modular design and how you can retrofit a home like that in such a short space of time and I guess why aren't we building like that in Ireland it seems that we go about that building process in a very very different way to what you do in the continent and so perhaps it's well the majority is still doing the large makeovers in all and and there's many programs and subsidies to do this so and I was part of the the people that started it as well but you know continuing research showed that this is not the right direction to go so I changed my mind so they don't like me now anymore because you know you said in the beginning we should do it yeah but this is how it is so the majority is still thinking about these large makeovers not about you know the reduced space heating but okay we'll see how it goes great very interesting thank you so much professor Rovers I think lots again