Urban Management for Building-Sector Decarbonization: Focusing on the Role of Low-Carbon Policies

The building sector is a major source of anthropogenic carbon emissions worldwide. While existing studies have extensively explored the socioeconomic and technological impacts on carbon emissions generated from building operations, few have assessed the effectiveness of low-carbon policies in curbin...

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Main Authors: Jianxin Tang, Pengpeng Yang, Kai Tang, Sibo Wang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-12-01
Series:Buildings
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/14/12/3924
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author Jianxin Tang
Pengpeng Yang
Kai Tang
Sibo Wang
author_facet Jianxin Tang
Pengpeng Yang
Kai Tang
Sibo Wang
author_sort Jianxin Tang
collection DOAJ
description The building sector is a major source of anthropogenic carbon emissions worldwide. While existing studies have extensively explored the socioeconomic and technological impacts on carbon emissions generated from building operations, few have assessed the effectiveness of low-carbon policies in curbing the increasing trend of building sector carbon emissions. This study examines the impacts of low-carbon policy intensity on building sector carbon emissions using a two-way fixed effects model on a 6-year panel (2015–2020) dataset for 286 cities in China. Our findings indicate that, on average, the aggregated intensity of low-carbon policies fails to pose any significant impacts on carbon emissions from building operations. This is partly due to the variations in different types of policy. Specifically, a 10% increase in the intensity of energy conservation policy results in a 0.05% decrease in carbon emissions, whereas capacity utilization policies are associated with an increase in building-operation carbon emissions. Moreover, these policy–emission relationships vary across building types and end-use sources. In particular, energy conservation policies are negatively associated with emissions from cooking and heating, but positively related to emissions generated from appliances and cooling. In comparison, capacity utilization policies tend to encourage additional emissions from most sources. This study highlights the partial effectiveness of energy conservation policies in curbing building sector carbon emissions and underscores the need for additional efforts in tackling the rebound effects to realize building sector decarbonization.
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spelling doaj-art-359f2c0ecdaf4502a8b33137dfdba80a2025-08-20T02:53:23ZengMDPI AGBuildings2075-53092024-12-011412392410.3390/buildings14123924Urban Management for Building-Sector Decarbonization: Focusing on the Role of Low-Carbon PoliciesJianxin Tang0Pengpeng Yang1Kai Tang2Sibo Wang3Shanghai Construction Management Vocational College, Shanghai 201702, ChinaArchitecture and Urban Planning Design & Research Institute of HUST Co., Ltd., Wuhan 430070, ChinaDibenqi Architectural Design Firm (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Shanghai 201101, ChinaSchool of Architecture and Urban Planning, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430070, ChinaThe building sector is a major source of anthropogenic carbon emissions worldwide. While existing studies have extensively explored the socioeconomic and technological impacts on carbon emissions generated from building operations, few have assessed the effectiveness of low-carbon policies in curbing the increasing trend of building sector carbon emissions. This study examines the impacts of low-carbon policy intensity on building sector carbon emissions using a two-way fixed effects model on a 6-year panel (2015–2020) dataset for 286 cities in China. Our findings indicate that, on average, the aggregated intensity of low-carbon policies fails to pose any significant impacts on carbon emissions from building operations. This is partly due to the variations in different types of policy. Specifically, a 10% increase in the intensity of energy conservation policy results in a 0.05% decrease in carbon emissions, whereas capacity utilization policies are associated with an increase in building-operation carbon emissions. Moreover, these policy–emission relationships vary across building types and end-use sources. In particular, energy conservation policies are negatively associated with emissions from cooking and heating, but positively related to emissions generated from appliances and cooling. In comparison, capacity utilization policies tend to encourage additional emissions from most sources. This study highlights the partial effectiveness of energy conservation policies in curbing building sector carbon emissions and underscores the need for additional efforts in tackling the rebound effects to realize building sector decarbonization.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/14/12/3924building-operation carbon emissionslow-carbon policyurban managementheterogenous effectstwo-way fixed effects model
spellingShingle Jianxin Tang
Pengpeng Yang
Kai Tang
Sibo Wang
Urban Management for Building-Sector Decarbonization: Focusing on the Role of Low-Carbon Policies
Buildings
building-operation carbon emissions
low-carbon policy
urban management
heterogenous effects
two-way fixed effects model
title Urban Management for Building-Sector Decarbonization: Focusing on the Role of Low-Carbon Policies
title_full Urban Management for Building-Sector Decarbonization: Focusing on the Role of Low-Carbon Policies
title_fullStr Urban Management for Building-Sector Decarbonization: Focusing on the Role of Low-Carbon Policies
title_full_unstemmed Urban Management for Building-Sector Decarbonization: Focusing on the Role of Low-Carbon Policies
title_short Urban Management for Building-Sector Decarbonization: Focusing on the Role of Low-Carbon Policies
title_sort urban management for building sector decarbonization focusing on the role of low carbon policies
topic building-operation carbon emissions
low-carbon policy
urban management
heterogenous effects
two-way fixed effects model
url https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/14/12/3924
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AT pengpengyang urbanmanagementforbuildingsectordecarbonizationfocusingontheroleoflowcarbonpolicies
AT kaitang urbanmanagementforbuildingsectordecarbonizationfocusingontheroleoflowcarbonpolicies
AT sibowang urbanmanagementforbuildingsectordecarbonizationfocusingontheroleoflowcarbonpolicies