The Housing Connection

Housing and Emissions

Housing is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.  Buildings result in emissions during their construction, and through their operation over their lifetime.  These emissions are proving difficult to reduce.

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The Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2024/2025, published by the UN Environment Program, estimated that in 2023 the global buildings and construction sector emitted the equivalent of just under 12 gigatonnes of CO2, around a third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.  These emissions come from three types of sources:

1. The 'embodied carbon' in the construction materials - that is the emissions produced in manufacturing those materials.  The main sources of these emissions are cement, steel, aluminum, glass and bricks, all of which are produced through energy-intensive manufacturing processes. These account for a little over 15% of the total emissions.

2. The energy expended in the construction process to power to various machines and tools used in construction and fit-out of buildings.  This accounts for around 25% of emissions.

3. The other approximately 60% of building-related emissions come from the operation of the buildings - the poser used for heating, cooling, lighting, powering elevators, providing hot water and running appliances like stoves and refrigerators.

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Approximately 60% of building-related emissions come from residential buildings, and the other 40% from commercial and industrial buildings.  In other words housing, what we all do, accounts for about 20% of all global emissions.  These emissions have stayed pretty much the same since at least 2015 - to avoid the worst of climate change they should be coming down.

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How do we bring these emissions down?  The answer is partly that they will come down as other sectors decarbonise.  Shifting electricity from fossil fuels to renewables will bring down emissions from electricity use in buildings.  Electrifying our vehicles and construction machinery, with a renewables-powered electricity system, will reduce construction emissions.  Changes in the manufacture of materials can reduce emissions there.  

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However, there is also a distinctive contribution to be made through the housing itself.  Some of the ways this can work include:

• improving the energy-efficiency of buildings so they use less power;

• changing construction methods and materials to reduce power use and embodies carbon;

• building circularity into the housing industry by recovering and re-using more materials as older buildings are demolished and new ones built;

• shifting key utilities like hot water systems, stoves and heaters from gas to electric, and using energy-efficient options;

• using rooftop solar panels and batteries to turn buildings from net consumers to net producers of electricity.

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The Mitigation sections of this website talk more about this, with a particular focus on reducing emissions from social and affordable housing.

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Adapting Housing

As well as being a significant contributor to climate change, housing will be affected by it in a number of different ways.  Precisely what this impact is will depend on where the housing is, and on the way it is designed and built.  The impacts mainly stem from extreme weather events.  Some examples include:

• Heat waves will be hotter and last for longer.  Can the home be effectively cooled without energy bills going through the roof?

• Flooding will be both more frequent, and more severe so that areas which haven't flooded before are now at risk.  Is the home located in an 'at-risk' area?  Can it be made more resilient by lifting it or refitting it with water-resistant materials?  Or is it too much at risk and needs a government to buy it back and demolish it while the resident moves uphill?

• Sea levels will continue to rise.  This will worsen floods, and will also result in some coastal properties being inundated at high tide or undermined by coastal erosion.  Is there a way to adapt to this, or do we just need to give up this housing?

• Bushfires will become more frequent and intense, and happen in places that have previously been spared.  Is your housing at risk?  How fire-resilient is it?

• Cyclones will be more intense, and will travel further south.  How wind and storm-resistant is our housing?

 

As with any risk management process, you would manage it by assessing this risk in each location.  How likely is the event?  How severe would the impacts be?  Are there things we can do to reduce the risk or the potential impacts?  Are these risks we can live with, or do we just have to let that property go?  

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The Adaptation sections of this site talk more about this, and about how to acquire and manage housing in a way that takes account of coming climate changes.