The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has launched a new framework for financial firms and companies operating in the built environment to indicate ways to achieve emissions reductions targets.
The SBTi has released its Buildings Sector Science-Based Target-Setting Criteria, a document which offers organisations a “whole building approach” to decarbonisation, covering issues including energy consumption and emissions leakage.
“This sector now has the tools to build towards net-zero – companies and financial institutions must take immediate action,” the SBTi’s chief technical officer, Alberto Carrillo Pineda, said. “Decarbonising both old and new buildings is paramount to tackling climate change. We call on these businesses to lead the net-zero transformation.”
The built environment is accountable for more than a quarter of energy-related emissions globally but now the new framework sets out a range of commitments and targets that organisations can work towards.
The SBTi notes that organisations should make public commitments to phasing out fossil fuel-based heating installations from 2030 at the latest to cover heating, cooking and power generation.
The new criteria also offer regional pathways, developed in collaboration with the Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor initiative (CRREM), for organisations to reduce “in-use” emissions linked to the energy consumption of a building. Regional pathways reflect the differences in local power grids and how buildings perform and are used in that particular economy and environment.
As the global floor area of buildings is expected to grow by 15% by 2030, the SBTi criteria require companies to tackle embodied emissions via public targets – emissions created before the building or infrastructure project even comes into operation, including those related to construction processes.
The SBTi also recommends companies develop energy efficiency measures to decarbonised existing and older buildings and consider them in retrofit projects.
The new framework was developed in consultation with an independent Expert Advisory Group (EAG) made up of companies, financial institutions, non-profit and multilateral organisations.
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