Developing City Action Plans for Building Decarbonization

The document argues that city officials face challenges in building decarbonization due to inconsistent definitions of Net Zero-Energy Buildings (NZEBs) and Zero-Carbon Buildings (ZCBs). It highlights that NZEBs often neglect embodied emissions—those released during material extraction, construction, and demolition—and advocates for the use of carbon-based life-cycle assessments (LCA) to achieve true zero carbon emissions. The guide recommends specific LCA tools such as openLCA, One Click LCA, Tally, and the EC3/Embodied Carbon Calculator, while noting that technical expertise and data quality remain barriers. Additionally, it lists several global resources and policy toolkits, including the Global Roadmap for Buildings and Construction 2020-2050 and the Carbon Leadership Forum Policy Toolkit, to help cities implement regulatory, economic, and fiscal instruments for decarbonization.

• City officials struggle with building emissions estimation because there is no internationally agreed-upon definition for Net Zero-Energy Buildings (NZEBs) and Zero-Carbon Buildings (ZCBs), which are defined differently across government agencies and geographies and are periodically updated by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
• NZEBs focus on balancing energy production and consumption, which only addresses operational energy and ignores embodied emissions released during a building's lifecycle. Consequently, a building classified as NZEB may not actually achieve zero carbon emissions over its entire lifetime.
• To maximize carbon reduction, the document recommends using life-cycle assessments (LCA) that measure greenhouse gas emissions in carbon dioxide equivalents across four stages: product manufacturing (design), construction, operation, and end-of-life.
• Several software tools are available for building LCAs, including openLCA (free), One Click LCA (compliant with EN, ISO, LEED, and BREEAM), and Tally (used with Revit® and the EC3/Embodied Carbon Calculator). However, adoption is hindered by a need for technical expertise, lack of data, costs, and regulatory mandates.
• Effective building decarbonization requires a mix of policy instruments, which can be categorized as regulatory-normative (codes), regulatory-informative (labeling), economic/market-based (carbon markets), fiscal (subsidies), and voluntary action.

APA

Gangwar, P. (2023). Developing City Action Plans for Building Decarbonization. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/update/developing-city-action-plans-building-decarbonization

Chicago

Gangwar, Pooja. Developing City Action Plans for Building Decarbonization. World Resources Institute, 2023. https://www.wri.org/update/developing-city-action-plans-building-decarbonization.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gangwar |first1=Pooja |title=Developing City Action Plans for Building Decarbonization |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=14 September 2023 |url=https://www.wri.org/update/developing-city-action-plans-building-decarbonization |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gangwar2023developing, author = {Gangwar, Pooja}, title = {{Developing City Action Plans for Building Decarbonization}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2023}, month = sep, url = {https://www.wri.org/update/developing-city-action-plans-building-decarbonization}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }