Dubai Municipality (DM) is to set up a special office to oversee applications and enforcement of its green buildings laws to be introduced at the end of the year.
This was announced last week by DM officials and WSP executives who are drawing up the regulations.
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According to the DM, the new laws will be introduced in four tiers with them becoming more stringent at each stage. The fourth tier is expected to be introduced in 2015.
With the introduction of tier four, Dubai is expected to become a world leader in sustainability. Unlike existing green building standards, the regulations will be enforceable by law.
"Rating systems are not mandatory, they are voluntary. They are market driven," said Green Building Regulatory project manager Susan Rogers.
"Regulations on the other hand are mandatory. They set minimum requirements."
The new rules will also include a set of legal standards that Dubai's existing building stock will have to follow. This may place some responsibility on landlords and tenants of existing buildings to make the necessary changes as well as developers, said WSP Environment and Energy associate Daniel Dowling.
WSP has based the regulations on the green building standards currently in use in the US, Australia and Singapore.
Rogers said: "We wanted to base these new regulations on primary systems in use in countries that have a similar climate to the Middle East."
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