Abstract
The building sector is responsible for 39% of process-related greenhouse gas emissions globally, making net- or nearly-zero energy buildings pivotal for reaching climate neutrality. This article reviews recent advances in key options and strategies for converting the building sector to be climate neutral. The evidence from the literature shows it is possible to achieve net- or nearly-zero energy building outcomes across the world in most building types and climates with systems, technologies, and skills that already exist, and at costs that are in the range of conventional buildings. Maximizing energy efficiency for all building energy uses is found as central to net-zero targets. Jurisdictions all over the world, including Brussels, New York, Vancouver, and Tyrol, have innovated visionary policies to catalyze themarket success of such buildings, with more than 7 million square meters of nearly-zero energy buildings erected in China alone in the past few years. Since embodied carbon in building materials can consume up to a half of the remaining 1.5°C carbon budget, this article reviews recent advances to minimize embodied energy and store carbon in building materials.
Highlights
E market success of such buildings, with more than 7 million square meters of nearly-zero energy buildings erected in China alone in the past few years
Technology, and skills that already exist and at costs that are in the range of conventional buildings
The fundamental building science principles have been known for decades, it is mostly in the past decade or two that buildings with very low operational energy demand, representing a savings of up to 95% compared to conventional buildings, as well as buildings producing more energy on an annual basis than what they demand, have been built in larger numbers
Summary
This article reviews the recent advances in the knowledge related to building materials, design, construction, retrofitting, and operation from the perspective of the demands posed by the dual challenges of development and mitigating climate change. Embodied energy: in this article, we refer to embodied energy as the energy that is required to produce, manufacture, and transport the materials and components of a building, as well as for the construction and assembly of the building; embodied energy occurs during a retrofit/ renovation of a building through the same processes www.annualreviews.org Net-Zero and Energy Plus Buildings 229. There are many net-zero energy, energy plus, and other very high-performance buildings worldwide, the scientific literature documenting these advances is slim This could potentially be because the relevant areas of scientific innovation—architecture and engineering—are traditionally less rewarded for scientific papers and more for advances in on-the-ground practice, compounded by the pace of recent development and the evolution of the climate rationale [16]. Knowledge coproduction by the academic and professional communities has become an important trend in the advancement of science, in fields where on-the-ground experience is crucial for testing and calibrating new findings, such as in urban science and architecture [17, 18]
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