Moving towards low-carbon and climate-ready buildings

Energy use in buildings accounts for about 50% of the UK's CO₂ emissions, and our building stock is also recognised to be inadequate in capacity to adapt to future climate change or even variation in the current climate. The construction industry is already working to make buildings more energy-efficient, but expected changes in the climate over the next 100 years mean that we will need to achieve rapid and massive CO₂ reductions, as well as adapting our existing and new buildings if they are to cope. This presentation reviews the need for buildings to become low-energy, low-carbon and climate-ready, how this can be achieved through new builds and refurbishments, and how the actual energy performance is verified and optimised through building performance evaluation and post-occupancy feedback. The presentation draws heavily from on-going research projects funded by ESRC, EPSRC, TSB and industry on climate change adaptation of suburban neighbourhoods, design for future climate, evaluating low-carbon communities, carbon mapping and building performance evaluation.