Fortifying homes to fight climate change
New norms will affect new builds and reforms carried out on existing homes
ALL building work will have to be adapted to ‘meet the needs of the climate emergency’.
The Valencia government has passed a decree which will take effect before the start of the summer.
Regional vice-president Aitana Mas said: “The new legislation incorporates innovative systems and sustainability criteria which will have to be respected in all building works.”
It is designed to ‘regulate the management of the quality of construction works’.
This will be done by ‘consolidating measures that contribute to the fight against climate change’.
Sra Mas explained that the additional criteria will adapt rules approved by the coalition government in 2015.
This will bring the norms into line with national and European legislation and ‘meet the necessities of this
time’.
The vice-president said the move will also ‘improve
channels of communication between the professionals of the construction sector and local and regional governments’.
The new norms will be applied to all works regarding residential buildings, ‘including any new builds and rehabilitation works that are carried out in existing ones’.
The decree also regulates the environmental sustainability of products and procedures used in the construction process.
And it establishes the standards that quality controls must meet and the mechanisms for carrying out inspections of the work.
The decree had not yet been published in the regional official bulletin (DOGV) at the time of going to press.
This document will explain the exact measures that will have to be taken to modernise the construction process and make sure that buildings have a reduced impact on the environment.
The legislation will come into effect three months after it is published in the DOGV, according to the regional government.