Abstract
Carbon emissions calculation at the sub-provincial level has issues in limited data and non-unified measurements. This paper calculated the life cycle energy consumption and carbon emissions of the building industry in Wuhan, China. The findings showed that the proportion of carbon emissions in the construction operation phase was the largest, followed by the carbon emissions of the indirect energy consumption and the construction material preparation phase. With the purpose of analyzing the contributors of the construction carbon emissions, this paper conducted decomposition analysis using Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI). The results indicated that the increasing buidling area was the major driver of energy consumption and carbon emissions increase, followed by the behavior factor. Population growth and urbanization, to some extent, increased the carbon emissions as well. On the contrary, energy efficiency was the main inhibitory factor for reducing the carbon emissions. Policy implications in terms of low-carbon construction development were highlighted.
Highlights
With the increasing environmental awareness, much attention has been paid to the greenhouse emissions, especially the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, among governments and scholars all over the world [1]
The results revealed that the life cycle method was applicable to the carbon emissions calculation for a single building, while the latter was suitable for analyzing buildings’ carbon emissions in the community
The primary objective of this study is to assess the carbon emissions of the life cycle energy consumption and further identify the main factors driving carbon emissions growth in the building sector at the city level. It calculated the life cycle energy consumption and carbon emissions of the building industry based on the life cycle theory in a case of Wuhan City, China
Summary
With the increasing environmental awareness, much attention has been paid to the greenhouse emissions, especially the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, among governments and scholars all over the world [1]. Building industry has become a target for environmental improvement as the building sector accounted for about 40% of the world’s energy consumption and 33% of the related global greenhouse gas emissions [2]. Due to the increasing awareness on environmental issues and pressure from various government bodies and environmental activists, many attempts have been made to assess building carbon emissions and to reduce building energy consumption [4]. It is important to pay much attention to the carbon emissions assessment at the city level, which may be beneficial to accurately calculate the total carbon emissions
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