IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v161y2022ics1364032122002945.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Net zero by 2050: Investigating carbon-budget compliant retrofit measures for the English housing stock

Author

Listed:
  • Li, X.
  • Arbabi, H.
  • Bennett, G.
  • Oreszczyn, T.
  • Densley Tingley, D.

Abstract

The UK has enacted one of the most ambitious carbon reduction targets striving for net zero emissions by 2050. A major challenge to achieving this is decarbonizing heating demand with almost 25 m homes in need of retrofit. This paper explores a range of retrofit interventions to the English residential stock. These are deployed immediately in 2021 to investigate the maximum carbon reduction that could be achieved. The impact of these interventions on embodied and operational carbon emissions is estimated from 2021 to 2050. The resulting emissions are compared to estimated national carbon budgets, in order to ascertain, if, and with what combination of retrofit measures, the English housing stock can stay within carbon budgets. The results show that mass deployment of air source or ground source heat pumps can reliably achieve combined embodied and operational emissions within national carbon budgets by 2050. The careful selection of insulation materials is key in bringing down the embodied emissions, particularly to meet stricter carbon budgets. The identified scale and pace of deployment thus needed to stay within carbon budgets is likely to pose enormous practical challenges. To overcome these challenges, we argue for (a) urgently increasing both heat pump deployment, and renewable generation targets beyond existing pledges, (b) increasing social awareness of residential retrofit benefits, and (c) providing more attractive financing options to incentivise and facilitate retrofit uptake.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, X. & Arbabi, H. & Bennett, G. & Oreszczyn, T. & Densley Tingley, D., 2022. "Net zero by 2050: Investigating carbon-budget compliant retrofit measures for the English housing stock," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:161:y:2022:i:c:s1364032122002945
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2022.112384
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032122002945
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2022.112384?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gillich, Aaron & Saber, Esmail Mahmoudi & Mohareb, Eugene, 2019. "Limits and uncertainty for energy efficiency in the UK housing stock," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    2. Bhattacharya, Mita & Inekwe, John N. & Sadorsky, Perry, 2020. "Consumption-based and territory-based carbon emissions intensity: Determinants and forecasting using club convergence across countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    3. Kevin Anderson & John F. Broderick & Isak Stoddard, 2020. "A factor of two: how the mitigation plans of ‘climate progressive’ nations fall far short of Paris-compliant pathways," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(10), pages 1290-1304, November.
    4. Galassi, Veronica & Madlener, Reinhard, 2018. "Shall I open the window? Policy implications of thermal-comfort adjustment practices in residential buildings," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 518-527.
    5. Miu, Luciana & Hawkes, Adam D., 2020. "Private landlords and energy efficiency: Evidence for policymakers from a large-scale study in the United Kingdom," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    6. Killip, Gavin & Owen, Alice, 2020. "The construction industry as agents of energy demand configuration in the existing housing stock," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    7. Ahlrichs, Jakob & Rockstuhl, Sebastian & Tränkler, Timm & Wenninger, Simon, 2020. "The impact of political instruments on building energy retrofits: A risk-integrated thermal Energy Hub approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    8. Greening, Benjamin & Azapagic, Adisa, 2012. "Domestic heat pumps: Life cycle environmental impacts and potential implications for the UK," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 205-217.
    9. Wade, Faye & Bush, Ruth & Webb, Janette, 2020. "Emerging linked ecologies for a national scale retrofitting programme: The role of local authorities and delivery partners," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    10. Gupta, Rajat & Kotopouleas, Alkis, 2018. "Magnitude and extent of building fabric thermal performance gap in UK low energy housing," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 673-686.
    11. Broad, Oliver & Hawker, Graeme & Dodds, Paul E., 2020. "Decarbonising the UK residential sector: The dependence of national abatement on flexible and local views of the future," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    12. Trotta, Gianluca, 2018. "The determinants of energy efficient retrofit investments in the English residential sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 175-182.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Xinyao & Bierkens, Floris & De Mel, Ishanki & Leach, Matthew & Short, Michael & Chitnis, Mona & Zheng, Boyue & Liu, Lirong, 2024. "Tackling fuel poverty and decarbonisation in a distributed heating system through a three-layer whole system approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 362(C).
    2. Konstantinos Sofias & Zoe Kanetaki & Constantinos Stergiou & Sébastien Jacques, 2023. "Combining CAD Modeling and Simulation of Energy Performance Data for the Retrofit of Public Buildings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-21, January.
    3. Li, X. & Densley Tingley, D., 2023. "A whole life, national approach to optimize the thickness of wall insulation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Barrett & Steve Pye & Sam Betts-Davies & Oliver Broad & James Price & Nick Eyre & Jillian Anable & Christian Brand & George Bennett & Rachel Carr-Whitworth & Alice Garvey & Jannik Giesekam & Greg, 2022. "Energy demand reduction options for meeting national zero-emission targets in the United Kingdom," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 7(8), pages 726-735, August.
    2. Xiaoyang Hou & Shuai Zhong & Jian’an Zhao, 2022. "A Critical Review on Decarbonizing Heating in China: Pathway Exploration for Technology with Multi-Sector Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-23, February.
    3. Moeller, Simon & Bauer, Amelie, 2022. "Energy (in)efficient comfort practices: How building retrofits influence energy behaviours in multi-apartment buildings," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    4. Zhang, Ruirui & Wang, Guiling & Shen, Xiaoxu & Wang, Jinfeng & Tan, Xianfeng & Feng, Shoutao & Hong, Jinglan, 2020. "Is geothermal heating environmentally superior than coal fired heating in China?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    5. Hemmatabady, Hoofar & Welsch, Bastian & Formhals, Julian & Sass, Ingo, 2022. "AI-based enviro-economic optimization of solar-coupled and standalone geothermal systems for heating and cooling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    6. Rockstuhl, Sebastian & Wenninger, Simon & Wiethe, Christian & Ahlrichs, Jakob, 2022. "The influence of risk perception on energy efficiency investments: Evidence from a German survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    7. Gemina Quest & Rosalie Arendt & Christian Klemm & Vanessa Bach & Janik Budde & Peter Vennemann & Matthias Finkbeiner, 2022. "Integrated Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Power and Heat Supply for a Neighborhood: A Case Study of Herne, Germany," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-21, August.
    8. Schleich, Joachim & Faure, Corinne & Meissner, Thomas, 2021. "Adoption of retrofit measures among homeowners in EU countries: The effects of access to capital and debt aversion," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    9. Gianluca Trotta & Kirsten Gram-Hanssen & Pernille Lykke Jørgensen, 2020. "Heterogeneity of Electricity Consumption Patterns in Vulnerable Households," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-17, September.
    10. Greening, Benjamin & Azapagic, Adisa, 2014. "Domestic solar thermal water heating: A sustainable option for the UK?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 23-36.
    11. Mélanie Douziech & Romain Besseau & Raphaël Jolivet & Bianka Shoai‐Tehrani & Jean‐Yves Bourmaud & Guillaume Busato & Mathilde Gresset‐Bourgeois & Paula Pérez‐López, 2024. "Life cycle assessment of prospective trajectories: A parametric approach for tailor‐made inventories and its computational implementation," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 28(1), pages 25-40, February.
    12. Akram, Vaseem & Ali, Jabir, 2022. "Do countries converge in natural resources rents? Evidence from club convergence analysis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    13. Riccardo Fraboni & Gianluca Grazieschi & Simon Pezzutto & Benjamin Mitterrutzner & Eric Wilczynski, 2023. "Environmental Assessment of Residential Space Heating and Cooling Technologies in Europe: A Review of 11 European Member States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-22, February.
    14. Rajat Gupta & Matt Gregg, 2021. "Integrated Testing of Building Fabric Thermal Performance for Calibration of Energy Models of Three Low-Energy Dwellings in the UK," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-24, March.
    15. Sokka, L. & Sinkko, T. & Holma, A. & Manninen, K. & Pasanen, K. & Rantala, M. & Leskinen, P., 2016. "Environmental impacts of the national renewable energy targets – A case study from Finland," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1599-1610.
    16. Yunzhao, Lu, 2022. "Modelling the role of eco innovation, renewable energy, and environmental taxes in carbon emissions reduction in E−7 economies: Evidence from advance panel estimations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 309-318.
    17. Ma, Sining & Guo, Siyue & Zheng, Dingqian & Chang, Shiyan & Zhang, Xiliang, 2021. "Roadmap towards clean and low carbon heating to 2035: A provincial analysis in northern China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    18. Francesco Zaccaro & John Richard Littlewood & Carolyn Hayles, 2021. "An Analysis of Repeating Thermal Bridges from Timber Frame Fraction in Closed Panel Timber Frame Walls: A Case Study from Wales, UK," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    19. Liu, Zhijian & Liu, Yuanwei & He, Bao-Jie & Xu, Wei & Jin, Guangya & Zhang, Xutao, 2019. "Application and suitability analysis of the key technologies in nearly zero energy buildings in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 329-345.
    20. Roumpedakis, Tryfon C. & Kallis, George & Magiri-Skouloudi, Despina & Grimekis, Dimitrios & Karellas, Sotirios, 2020. "Life cycle analysis of ZEOSOL solar cooling and heating system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 82-98.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:161:y:2022:i:c:s1364032122002945. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.