UN report outlines how developing, developed countries can reduce emissions from constructions

UN report outlines how developing, developed countries can reduce emissions from constructions

Subject :Geography

Section: Physical geography

Context:

• Developing countries should switch from unsustainable building practices to using alternative low-carbon building materials to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a new UN report highlighted.

About the report:

• Report title: Building Materials and The Climate: Constructing A New Future
• Released by: UNEP and Yale Center for Ecosystems and Architecture.

Report findings:

• About 37% of the Greenhouse Gas emissions are traced to the build environment sector: buildings, the distribution systems that supply water and electricity, and the roads, bridges, and transportation systems.
• Processing of cement, the binding agent in concrete, contributes 7 per cent of global carbon emissions.
• The report recommends “Avoid-Shift-Improve” strategies to reduce emissions.
  • “Avoiding” emissions through circularity to ensure waste is eliminated while extending a building’s life,
  • “Shifting” to sustainable materials, and
  • “Improving” the production of conventional materials such as concrete, steel, aluminum, plastics, glass and bricks.
• Embodied carbon is the amount of carbon dioxide across the life cycle of the built environment process.

Alternative materials and processes in build environment sector to reduce the Greenhouse Gas emissions:

• Increasing the lifetime of buildings to reduce the aggregate embodied carbon.
• Switch towards properly managed bio-based materials.
• Mass timber has emerged as an attractive alternative to carbon-intensive concrete and steel.
• Processed bamboo or engineered bamboo.
• Electrifying and decarbonising the energy that is supplied to the production and maintenance of materials, buildings and urban infrastructure.
• Reducing the clinker (produced from limestone and chalk)-to-cement ratio and increasing the share of cement alternatives.
• Carbon capture and utilization for concrete production (CCU concrete) technology to reduce carbon emission. CCU concrete can remove 0.1 to 1.4 gigatonnes of CO2 by 2050.
• Avoiding raw material extraction by promoting steel reuse and producing steel from scrap.
• Using renewable energy for aluminum production.