What decarbonized the residential building operation worldwide since the 2000s

Abstract

Decarbonization in operational residential buildings worldwide has become critical in achieving the carbon neutral target due to the growing household energy demand. To accelerate the pace of global carbon neutrality, this study explores the operational carbon change in global residential buildings through the generalized Divisia index method and decoupling analysis, considering the decarbonization levels of residential buildings at different scales. The results show that (1) most of the samples showed a decrease in the total emissions from 2000 to 2019. Except for China and the United States (US), the carbon emissions in global residential building operations decreased by 7.95 million tons of carbon dioxide (MtCO2) per year over the study period. Emissions per gross domestic product (GDP) was the most positive driver causing the decarbonization of residential buildings, while GDP was the most negative driver. (2) Carbon intensity was essential to achieving a strong decoupling of economic development and carbon emissions. The US almost consistently presented strong decoupling, while China showed weak decoupling over the last two decades. (3) The pace of decarbonization in global residential building operations is gradually slowing down. From 2000 to 2019, decarbonization from residential buildings across 30 countries was 2094.3 MtCO2, with a decarbonization efficiency of 3.4%. Overall, this study addresses gaps in evaluating global decarbonization from operational residential buildings and provides a reference for evaluating building decarbonization by other emitters.