Characterizing regional building energy consumption under joint climatic and socioeconomic impacts

Abstract

Building energy consumption (BEC) control is of significance in the context of pursuing more intensive carbon emission reduction. How climatic and socioeconomic conditions dually drive regional BEC remains to be explored in depth. This study tracks the whole-process BEC in 24 Chinese provincial regions with diverse climatic and socioeconomic conditions and reveals the spatial pattern and driving mechanism. The results indicate that the BEC is 1.51 billion tons of oil-equivalent in 2016, with 51.7% for material preparation, 4.0% for construction-demolition and 44.3% for operation stage. More economically developed regions have larger BEC (Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangdong). Climatic conditions have more decisive effect on regions with larger energy consumption of operation (mainly distributed in severe cold zone and hot summer warm winter zone), which is determined by thermal performance of buildings. Socioeconomic conditions have more decisive effect on regions with larger energy consumption of material preparation (mainly distributed in cold zone, hot summer cold winter zone and temperate zone), which is determined by trends in urbanization rate and population. Based on the findings of this work, more consideration regarding climatic and socioeconomic conditions can be incorporated into the formulation of regional building energy conservation policies for more pertinent BEC control.