Exploiting vacant urban residential buildings to promote carbon neutrality in China
Abstract Urban construction has been a major contributor to carbon emissions. As China’s housing demands decelerates, addressing the vacancy of residential buildings has become essential for revitalizing the real estate sector and promoting low-carbon and circular urban development. Here we show tha...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2025-08-01
|
| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62879-4 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Abstract Urban construction has been a major contributor to carbon emissions. As China’s housing demands decelerates, addressing the vacancy of residential buildings has become essential for revitalizing the real estate sector and promoting low-carbon and circular urban development. Here we show that China’s housing vacancy rate within the available residential building stock may have exceeded 30% since 2021. We assess three strategies to transform excessive vacancy into an opportunity for carbon neutrality: (i) demand-side mitigation by housing vacancy rate reduction to slow down near-term carbon emissions, (ii) supply-side mitigation through the renovation of old residential buildings, and (iii) restricting demolition for sustained carbon reduction. These three strategies collectively yield superimposed carbon mitigation benefits: moderate implementation could reduce China’s urban residential construction emissions by more than 43% over 2023–2060, meeting a 2 °C-compatible carbon budget under the Sustainability Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and offering a transferable framework for low-carbon, resource-efficient urban construction. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2041-1723 |