Speaker
Description
The 2024 European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive requires that, by 2030, Member States must impose limit values on the whole-life carbon emissions of new buildings, and develop a roadmap of stricter limit values over time. In Belgium, the limit values and roadmap must still be defined. Recent research developed reference (benchmark) values for the life cycle environmental impacts of new Belgian residential buildings, following two approaches. A bottom-up approach was used to obtain benchmark values from reference buildings, which represent conventional construction practices. A top-down approach was used to translate global environmental targets, such as carbon budgets, to target values for buildings. The comparison of both reveals that new buildings exceed their allocated carbon budget by a factor of 6.5. Furthermore, benchmark values were calculated for not only carbon emissions but also other environmental indicators. Comparing both approaches reveals that the targets are exceeded for four additional indicators, out of 14 indicators assessed. This highlights that, while carbon emissions are high on the agenda, other environmental impacts should not be neglected, as burden shifting may occur. The main drivers for these impacts are operational energy use and conventional building materials. Key mitigation strategies thus include decarbonising the electricity mix, increasing renewable energy use, and adopting low-impact building materials. Impacts should also be reduced by extending building and material lifespans and reusing materials to limit raw material demand. The findings and benchmark values can be used to develop a roadmap for Belgian buildings that goes beyond the carbon tunnel vision.
| If your abstract is not accepted for an oral presentation, would you be interested in presenting it as a poster instead? | Yes |
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| If accepted by the Scientific Board, I agree to have my presentation/poster and abstract published on the Belgian Climate Centre websites and social media. | Yes |
