Improving the energy efficiency of the UK’s existing building stock is vital to meeting the UK’s climate change mitigation targets. Currently at least 30% of all end use Green House Gas (GHG) emissions are from the UK residential sector. If the UK is going to meet its legally binding target of 80% reduction in GHG emissions by 2050 from 1990 levels, emissions from the UK residential sector will have to be eliminated almost entirely.
This means the ‘right’ mix of policies, technologies and behavioural changes with the greatest potential for emissions abatement is crucial. However, this is much more complicated than it appears at first sight.
New research from the University of Cambridge has started to highlight the importance of understanding how the interaction between energy efficiency technologies, socio-demographic characteristics, environmental conditions and human behaviour all combine in unique ways to create very different carbon mitigation opportunities for each dwelling. Therefore, maximising the potential for carbon mitigation requires much deeper understanding for how different factors interact for each dwelling.
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Image: Thermogram of a Passivhaus building with a traditional building in the background.
Credit: Passivhaus Institut via Wikimedia Commons.
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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