This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: We each need a roof over our heads, classrooms to learn in and offices or spaces to work in. To meet this unprecedented demand for new buildings, globally, we're constructing the equivalent of an entire New York City every month.
This provides us with vital infrastructure but also generates an enormous amount of world-warming emissions. So how can we build what we need without harming our planet? Our new research provides some answers.
Creating new buildings benefits communities, cities and countries and eases housing pressure. That's why Australia's National Housing Accord is aiming to construct 1.2 million new, well-located homes between 2024 and 2029. But this Australian effort is dwarfed by the 96,000 new and affordable homes needed worldwide every single day.
Tragically, hundreds of millions of people around the world endure homelessness. One in four lives in harmful conditions. However, construction comes with a climate cost.
Each time we build, we use materials and construction processes that release large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions—known as "embodied carbon." To understand the scale of embodied carbon, picture a square meter (11 square feet) of floor space. Constructing that square meter would release around half a metric ton (1,100 pounds) of greenhouse gas emissions. Now scale that up to building a whole New York–sized city every month!
Our new study examined trends in office building construction in Australia. We currently have about 170 million square meters (1.8 billion square feet) of office space across the country and are set to build a further 100 million square meters (1.1 billion square feet) by 2049. To investigate the effect these buildings have on global warming, we modeled their greenhouse gas emissions.
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