Roadmap for Decarbonization of the Building and Construction Industry—A Supply Chain Analysis Including Primary Production of Steel and Cement

Ida Karlsson,Alla Toktarova,Johan Rootzén,Lisa Göransson,Mikael Odenberger,Filip Johnsson

doi:10.3390/en13164136

Ida Karlsson, Alla Toktarova + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en13164136

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Abstract

Sweden has committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net-zero by 2045. Around 20% of Sweden’s annual CO2 emissions arise from manufacturing, transporting, and processing of construction materials for construction and refurbishment of buildings and infrastructure. In this study, material and energy flows for building and transport infrastructure construction is outlined, together with a roadmap detailing how the flows change depending on different technical and strategical choices. By matching short-term and long-term goals with specific technology solutions, these pathways make it possible to identify key decision points and potential synergies, competing goals, and lock-in effects. The results show that it is possible to reduce CO2 emissions associated with construction of buildings and transport infrastructure by 50% to 2030 applying already available measures, and reach close to zero emissions by 2045, while indicating that strategic choices with respect to process technologies and energy carriers may have different implications on energy use and CO2 emissions over time. The results also illustrate the importance of intensifying efforts to identify and manage both soft and hard barriers and the importance of simultaneously acting now by implementing available measures (e.g., material efficiency and material/fuel substitution measures), while actively planning for long-term measures (low-CO2 steel or cement).

Highlights

Sweden has committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net-zero by 2045 and to pursue negative emissions thereafter, in line with its obligations to the Paris agreement [1,2]
The results show that it is possible to reduce CO2 emissions associated with construction of buildings and transport infrastructure by at least 50% to 2030 (51–62%), and reach close to zero emissions by 2045 (90–94%) with the electrification and material efficiency pathways demonstrating the highest reductions
The results show that it is possible to reduce CO2 emissions associated with construction of buildings and transport infrastructure by at least 50% to 2030, applying already available measures, and reach around 90% emissions reductions by 2045, while the energy use may be reduced by varying degrees (6–19% to 2030 and 16–37% to 2045), indicating that strategic choices with respect to process technologies and energy carriers may have different implications on the energy use over time

Summary

Introduction

Sweden has committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net-zero by 2045 and to pursue negative emissions thereafter, in line with its obligations to the Paris agreement [1,2]. As there is an urgent need to start a transformation towards deep decarbonization, decisions must be made as to how to best manage the transition, while taking the future into account [3]. This includes starting with the current situation to map mitigation measures to see which measures that can be applied already at present and those which will require longer lead times to be implemented. Extended input-output data has provided estimates for the year 2015 These determine territorial emissions associated with building construction to be 6.6 Mt CO2 e, increasing to 11.6 Mt CO2 e when including imports [7,8]. Territorial emissions linked transport infrastructure construction is estimated at

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