Reducing China’s building material embodied emissions: Opportunities and challenges to achieve carbon neutrality in building materials
Hongyou Lu,
Kairui You,
Wei Feng,
Nan Zhou,
David Fridley,
Lynn Price,
Stephane de la Rue du Can
Affiliations
Hongyou Lu
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Kairui You
Institute of Technology for Carbon Neutrality, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China; School of Material Sciences and Energy Engineering, Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
Wei Feng
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Institute of Technology for Carbon Neutrality, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China; School of Material Sciences and Energy Engineering, Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China; Corresponding author
Nan Zhou
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Corresponding author
David Fridley
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Lynn Price
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Stephane de la Rue du Can
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Summary: Embodied emissions from the production of building materials account for 17% of China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and are important to focus on as China aims to achieve its carbon neutrality goals. However, there is a lack of systematic assessments on embodied emissions reduction potential of building materials that consider both the heterogeneous industrial characteristics as well as the Chinese buildings sector context. Here, we developed an integrated model that combines future demand of building materials in China with the strategies to reduce CO2 emissions associated with their production, using, and recycling. We found that measures to improve material efficiency in the value-chain has the largest CO2 mitigation potential before 2030 in both Low Carbon and Carbon Neutrality Scenarios, and continues to be significant through 2060. Policies to accelerate material efficiency practices, such as incorporating embodied emissions in building codes and conducting robust research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) in carbon removal are critical.
