Abstract
Buildings consume more than 30% of the world's energy and are responsible for more than 28% of its energy-related carbon emissions. Despite the introduction of numerous energy codes, the sector is not ‘on-track’ to achieve its climate change target. To solve this, the paper asserts, energy codes must be derived from global climate change targets and consider the sector's expansion. This paper introduces a novel global Building Stock Energy Model (BSEM) that realises that vision. Assuming a globally equitable annual building energy allowance per capita, the model determines, for the first time, the necessary energy efficiency levels for newly constructed and existing residential and non-residential building stocks of 138 countries, such that the sector's climate change target is met. The results show that, to achieve that target whilst maintaining our ‘lavish’ lifestyle within buildings and continuing the sector's expansion, extreme improvements in energy efficiency – greater than ever accomplished – are necessary. This has important policy implications in that it highlights the applicability and necessity of the ‘degrowth’ argument to the buildings sector. Moreover, the paper provides a valuable technical pathway around which building energy codes can be designed, where each of the 138 countries contributes its ‘fair’ share towards a below 2 °C-aligned global buildings sector.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 15377-15398 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Energy Reports |
Volume | 8 |
Early online date | 21 Nov 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 30 Nov 2022 |
Funding
The PhD research project upon which this paper is based was supported by a doctoral studentship under the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) “Centre for Decarbonisation of the Built Environment (dCarb)” [grant ref EP/L016869/1 ], and the Royal Academy of Engineering funded project “Preparing the South African Built Environment for Climate Change Resilience (SABER)” [grant ref IAPP1617 \59 ].
Funders | Funder number |
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Centre for Decarbonisation of the Built Environment | EP/L016869/1 |
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council | |
Royal Academy Of Engineering | IAPP1617 \59 |
Keywords
- Building energy policy
- Climate justice
- Degrowth
- Reverse engineering
- Sustainable development
- Urban energy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Energy