Building decarbonization: imperative goal

Abstract EN

The buildings where we live, learn, work, and have fun account for roughly 47% of carbon dioxide emissions.

It is an essential source of the rising temperature and global warming that caused climate change and its extreme events witnessed worldwide.

Since buildings are an inherent reason for this, fulfilling the goals of the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015, inevitably requires addressing this deeply rooted cause; otherwise, humanity will not realize its aspirations.

Therefore, this paper tackles the issue of building decarbonization starting with the "Building Paradox" to emphasize that there is no contradiction between the developmental role of buildings and the urgent need to curb their emissions.

This promotes the achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.

The paper then discusses the definition of building decarbonization and the guiding criteria that can be agreed upon to accomplish that task.

The paper provides a frame of reference for a vision entailing that all new buildings would be carbon neutral by 2030, and all existing buildings would be carbon-free by 2050.

This vision should be translated into a structure for the proposed ecosystem to be the nucleus of integrated and consistent action plans.