Tag Archive for: carbon

carbon

Action needs to be taken on EU carbon emissions

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EU Building regulations state that all new buildings constructed within the EU must be zero–emission buildings by 2030 and new ‘public’ buildings must be zero–emission buildings by 2027.

WorldGBC has convened a coalition of 35 built environment stakeholder groups, representing over 5,000 organisations from across the building value chain, to call for high level ambition as Parliamentary negotiations on the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD) enter their final stage.  With the vote approaching, the coalition is calling on politicians to seize a once-in-a-generation opportunity to eliminate carbon emissions from Europe’s building stock.

This past week WorldGBC has written an open letter to MEPs calling on them to:

  • Accelerate building renovation and address energy use and efficiency via the introduction of Minimum Energy Performance Standards and harmonisation of Energy Performance Certificates
  • Address total lifecycle emissions of buildings, including both operational and embodied emissions by supporting provisions regarding Whole Life Carbon reporting, targets, and thresholds

An ambitious EPBD revision will make EU building compatible with EU climate targets, take 35 million citizens out of energy poverty1 and unlock the economic benefits of creating up to 3.3 million green jobs in the EU every year2 while boosting local communities.

In Europe, buildings account for around 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions. Embodied carbon, which refers to emissions from the construction, renovation, deconstruction or demolition and the wider supply chain of a building, contributes typically between 10-20% of the EU building carbon footprint. This means that before a building is even in use, it has already contributed significant carbon emissions and depleted the EU’s ‘carbon budget’.

This letter comes amid growing political and industry support for policy that tackles the Whole Life Carbon impact of buildings.

To view the letter please go here

 

Source: worldgbc.org / bdc magazine.com

carbon

Zero carbon by 2050?

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The UK is to become the first G7 nation to set a legally-binding target to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Prime Minister Theresa May announced Government will tomorrow lay a statutory instrument before Parliament that will amend the Climate Change Act and introduce a  net zero emission target.

Presently the country is committed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.

According to the Committee on Climate Change, which recommended the move in its recent report, the industry has little more than 10 years to take all new buildings over to net zero carbon if the goal is to be met.

The commitment will also need wholesale changes to energy generating infrastructure and big changes to new buildings and improvements to existing buildings.

This will require a switch away from fossil-fuel based heating, increasing the energy efficiency of the building stock, and improving the energy efficiency of lighting and electrical appliances.

It will also necessitate the widespread use of heat pumps to replace boilers and accelerating district heating and hydrogen technologies.

Julie Hirigoyen, Chief Executive at UKGBC said: “This is a powerful and positive move by the Prime Minister that will give her time in office a legacy beyond Brexit.

“UKGBC knows that the built environment contains some of the biggest opportunities to slash emissions.

“We must accelerate action in all areas including improving the efficiency of our aging building stock, and overcoming the challenge of decarbonising heat.

“To do this, we need to see both policy and industry leadership to ensure the built environment is at the vanguard of emissions reductions. There is no time to lose, now is the time to act.”

Paul Reeve, director of the Electrical Contractors Association, said: “No-one should expect the feat of resolving the UK’s carbon footprint to be anything other than daunting, but the Government has issued a truly remarkable response to the ‘zero carbon’ challenge set out by the CCC in May.

“The task ahead is immense: the UK is drastically short of the infrastructure, supply and installation capacity needed to introduce low-carbon building heating at scale.

“There are also major ‘low carbon’ skills gaps across building design, construction and installation. We also need to ensure that whatever happens in the years ahead delivers the quality and performance necessary for whole-life low carbon buildings.”