# Building Energy Retrofit Measures in Hot-Summer-Cold-Winter Climates: A Case Study in Shanghai
## 6 Common Challenges for Building Retrofit Measures in Shanghai
### Lack of Standards and Regulatory Support  
The unavailability of standards and regulatory support is considered the second most challenging factor, with 20% of survey feedback agreeing. Standards and regulations on building energy efficiency have aided in the development of environment-friendly and energy-saving buildings, as documented from the 1980s and most updated in 2015 [102]. In 2016, the government published a more comprehensive document with new standards and regulations for different building types [80]. However, before this year, it was impossible to assess and validate building retrofit measures in existing building types in China. Furthermore, the uncoordinated/unavailable regulatory support has aerbated the application of building retrofit measures in this city.  
As a policy decision-maker, adequate measures to optimise the effectiveness and efficiency of policies at low cost should be championed. Presently, energy-efficient retrofit initiatives are limited due to low government fiscal budget for this sector [58; 94]. Also, the difficulty of controlling building retrofit quality is another major issue under standards and regulations. There is a lack of structured quality management system due to different policies from different governmental departments like Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD), Development and Reform Commission (DRC), Government Offices Administration (GOA) and Ministry of Construction (MOC) [94]. Consequently, the integration of policies from various tiers of government should be encouraged. By so doing, dependable policies would be designed to stimulate the most appropriate policy tool to attaining optimum building energy savings [103]. For example, \"administrative policies for government-owned  
Figure 11: Common challenges (%) affecting building retrofit measures in Shanghai.  
office buildings, fiscal subsidies for private-owned commercial buildings and a combination of these two for public buildings\" [58].  
Furthermore, policymakers should consider market-oriented mechanisms in addition to local fiscal capacity and economic conditions in crafting policies. The mechanism will aid promote sustainable market cultivation in the long run as well as maintaining a healthy retrofit market, operation and control. In terms of technical solutions, incentive policy should be directed and well defined for building envelopes/insulation in different climate zones in order to enhance its retrofit economy. On the other hand, the limited subsidy should be channelled towards measures involving the retrofit of lighting systems, improving the human factor, operation management and optimization [58].  
Besides that, policies should be promulgated to promote sustainable business models for the Building Energy Efficiency Retrofit (BEER) market [58; 69]. Plans should be put in place for futuristic subsidies to lessen payback periods and subsequently attract ECMs. Moreover, government-owned buildings need measures to reduce institutional obstacles to facilitate the implementation of sustainable business models. In order to overcome such obstacles, coordinated and refined standards and regulations across the different governmental departments should be promoted.