CO2, climate change mitigation and the building industry

This chapter provides a brief overview of the main causes of global warming. It looks at climate change mitigation policies and frameworks, particularly Carbon dioxide (CO₂), reduction targets. The chapter discusses the challenges to CO₂ reduction posed by unpredictable ‘human factors’ and how building designers can meet them. It considers climate change mitigation measures, the succeeding chapter covers climate change impacts and adaptation measures. Globally, almost 75% of the fossil fuel burned is used to produce energy. Clearly, the building industry cannot solve all the world’s environmental problems on its own and any strategies for the built environment should go hand-in-hand with national energy policies. Standard Assessment Procedure and Simplified Building Energy Model are energy consumption tools to predict energy use for dwellings and non-domestic buildings respectively. Human interventions and temperature increases may unbalance natural processes and cause them to release, rather than absorb, CO₂ and other greenhouse gases.