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Abstract

Transition towards a net-zero building sector offers substantial potential to mitigate climate change impacts andthus plays a pivotal role in meeting the goals set forth in the Paris Agreement. Stakeholders often use mathematical models to understand the true potential for mitigating emissions by reducing the energy demand of thebuilding sector. However, the existing models rarely provide insights into net-zero pathways for both the residential and tertiary buildings as this is a complex sector to calculate the future pathways towards net-zero.Hence, uncertainties in the associated policy decisions persist. Therefore, this study uses the High-EfficiencyBuilding (HEB) energy model to calculate the energy demand reduction potential as well as to analyze thenet-zero feasibility of the building sector for each of the European Union Member States. This research uses fourscenarios, which are designed to represent scenario-specific levels of commitment the European Union MemberStates regarding the application of different energy efficiency measures, to provide insights into the consequences of today’s policy decisions by 2060. The findings of this study show that energy demand of the buildingsector can be reduced substantially and can even become nearly net-zero by 2060. Based on the demandreduction potential of the building sector, it can be concluded that the building renovation rate and constructionof new advanced buildings not only provides unprecedented potential for reducing energy demand but also pavesthe way for reaching climate neutrality goals.

DOI

10.1016/j.rser.2024.114827

Publication Date

2024-09-20

Publication Title

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

ISSN

1364-0321

Keywords

Buildings, EU, Energy demand, Energy transition, Net-zero, Retrofit

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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