Carbon footprint: IPCC targets vs. building and social standards

Abstract

Residential buildings in Russia consume electricity, natural gas, thermal energy for home and water heating, as well as other resources from external suppliers. Such resource consumption results in direct and indirect carbon dioxide emissions that affect the environment. Sustainable development requires the humanity to fit the environmental carrying capacity, and measures against climate change require carbon emissions to reduce. This paper compares carbon footprint reduction target declared by UNCC Conference 2015 and the Paris Agreement, as well as targets offered by other environmental institutions, to carbon emissions arising from existing Russian building standards and social norms application, and actual data. Building standards set the amount of heat per square meter to be delivered to apartment buildings depending on its geographic location, while social norms set a minimal premises area per resident. Also social standards for electricity and natural gas consumption per person exist. Russian Government decrees regulate utility services parameters for apartment and residential buildings, setting hot water temperature and consumption standards per resident and for common household needs. These norms and standards permit the minimal carbon dioxide emissions per year per resident to assess and compare to the carbon footprint reduction target. This paper demonstrates that existing Russian building standards and norms result in carbon emissions per capita significantly exceeding the targets, and recommends standards and norms update to reduce carbon footprint, admitting at the same time that such update is only a step towards the Paris Agreement targets.