Towards a Carbon Neutral Roadmap of the Building Sector by Mid-Century

Dear Colleagues,

Carbon neutrality is expected to prove a benefit for people, nature and the economy. Some main emitters (e.g., China) have pledged that their carbon emissions will peak within the next decade, and they will be carbon neutral by the middle of the century [1, 2]. As the key to going carbon neutral, the low carbon transition of the building sector[1] (especially the decarbonization being carried out in building operations [4]) has attracted the public’s attention as buildings show the greatest potential for cost-effective emission reductions through current strategy and technologies, compared with the potential in the industry and transportation sectors [5, 6]. Thus, the approaches and strategies for buildings becoming carbon neutral are worthy of investigation [7, 8]. Overall, the above effort can assist the government in developing more accurate and feasible strategies towards building operations’ decarbonization [9]. Moreover, it provides a more powerful decision-making framework in the context of developing targeted and feasible strategies for the transition to low-carbon for the future building sector [10].

Under this research topic, we call for papers discussing methods and strategies of any kind for achieving the decarbonization of the building sector from a theoretical or practical perspective, and especially in terms of achieving the decarbonization of building operations. For this topic, it is also important to provide reliable and effective empirical analyses to investigate how to mitigate carbon emissions and to move toward a carbon neutral status. We also welcome any study that analyzes the impact of socio-economic, environmental, technological, and political factors on the achievement of the carbon neutral goal. The research topic is intended as a state-of-the-art resource for researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers interested in assessing the pathways to carbon neutrality in the global or regional building sectors.

We welcome any study on methods, strategies, and applications useful to achieving the carbon neutral goal in the future building sector, and analyses aiming at building operation will be considered first. Topics of interest for the Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Transition to low carbon in building operations;
• Transition to low carbon in building materials;
• Negative emission technologies in Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEBs) and green buildings;
• Urban planning integrated with energy systems;
• Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) and renewable energy applications in building energy systems;
• Low-carbon and ecological cities;
• Climate change and policy options targeting low-carbon energy systems;
• Demand response management and control;
• Energy management, policy and economics;
• Building emissions mitigation;
• Distributed energy systems;
• Integrated energy networks and microgrids

[1] Being responsible for one-third of final energy use and 40% of total carbon emissions in 2019, the building sector has received a great deal of attention in terms of carbon mitigation throughout the world [3] Ma M, Ma X, Cai W, Cai W. Carbon-dioxide mitigation in the residential building sector: A household scale-based assessment. Energy Conversion and Management. 2019;198:111915.

References

[1] Mallapaty S. How China could be carbon neutral by mid-century. Nature. 2020;586:482-483.

[2] Normile D. China's bold climate pledge earns praise—but is it feasible? Science. 2020;370:17.

[3] Ma M, Ma X, Cai W, Cai W. Carbon-dioxide mitigation in the residential building sector: A household scale-based assessment. Energy Conversion and Management. 2019;198:111915.

[4] Ma M, Ma X, Cai W, Cai W. Low carbon roadmap of residential building sector in China: Historical mitigation and prospective peak. Applied Energy. 2020;273:115247.

[5] Liu Z, Guan D, Moore S, Lee H, Su J, Zhang Q. Climate policy: Steps to China's carbon peak. Nature. 2015;522:279-281.

[6] Feng W, Zhang Q, Ji H, Wang R, Zhou N, Ye Q, et al. A review of net zero energy buildings in hot and humid climates: Experience learned from 34 case study buildings. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 2019;114:109303.

[7] Zhou N, Khanna N, Feng W, Ke J, Levine M. Scenarios of energy efficiency and CO 2 emissions reduction potential in the buildings sector in China to year 2050. Nature Energy. 2018;3:978-984.

[8] Ma M, Cai W, Cai W. Carbon abatement in China's commercial building sector: A bottom-up measurement model based on Kaya-LMDI methods. Energy. 2018;165:350-368.

[9] Ma M, Cai W, Wu Y. China Act on the Energy Efficiency of Civil Buildings (2008): A decade review. Science of The Total Environment. 2019;651:42-60.

[10] Wang H, Chen W, Shi J. Low carbon transition of global building sector under 2- and 1.5-degree targets. Applied Energy. 2018;222:148-157.

Dr. Minda Ma
Prof. Dr. Weiguang Cai
Guest Editors

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• transition to low carbon
• building energy
• electricity decarbonization
• negative emission technology
• carbon neutral policy