630+ firms back the Reduction Roadmap: “Align climate science and Danish building legislation to comply with the Paris Agreement"
CEBRA, EFFEKT and Artelia have collected the Danish building industry to back climate science. We must halve CO2 emission standards for new buildings by 2025 to mirror the Paris Agreement limits, they say in an appeal to lawmakers. The movement is based on calculations from the expanded Reduction Roadmap 2.0, which now encompasses over 90% of new construction in Denmark.
When the Reduction Roadmap was released in 2022, the Danish construction industry, for the first time, got a science-based framework, which outlines how much we need to reduce CO2 emissions to build within the limits of the Paris Agreement. In short, the roadmap illustrates how much carbon the construction industry emits, how much we need to reduce emissions, and how fast we need to act.
Now, the roadmap, which initially focused solely on decarbonisation of new residential construction in Denmark, has now been expanded to include over 90% of all new construction in Denmark. In addition to housing, institutions and commercial buildings are now part of the expanded goal-setting tool, Reduction Roadmap 2.0.
We have less than seven years
The updated roadmap illustrates that the industry must reduce the average emission from the current 9.5 kg CO2-eq./m2/year to only 0.3 between 2026 and 2030 to comply with the Paris Agreement and get to the safe operating space of human-made climate change.
“The big challenge here is that it needs to happen quickly. We have less than seven years to comply with the Paris Agreement in the construction industry,” says Mikkel Schlesinger, Partner at CEBRA, one of the initiators of Reduction Roadmap along with the architectural firm EFFEKT and engineering firm Artelia.
There is not yet enough demand for low-carbon construction, and only a few outside the industry know what low-carbon construction actually means. Legislation is needed to push the development. It is important that industry decision-makers tell our politicians that the industry is ready for even more ambitious requirements that stimulate a more climate-friendly demand., Partner, CEBRA
The latest calculations also show that to reach the target in time, new construction must emit a maximum of 5.8 kg CO2-eq./m2/year in 2025. This corresponds to a reduction of about one-third. The 2025 target is topical these weeks and months because the negotiations on the new national building code, valid from 2025 to 2027, was initiated late December by the Danish Parliament and will continue in 2024.
“There is not yet enough demand for low-carbon construction, and only a few outside the industry know what low-carbon construction actually means. Legislation is needed to push the development. It is important that industry decision-makers tell our politicians that the industry is ready for even more ambitious requirements that stimulate a more climate-friendly demand,” he adds.
No sooner said than done. Hundreds of Danish firms have already shown their support for the 2025 reduction target on ReductionRoadmap.dk.
The industry asks for systemic change
In October, the time was right to let the voices of industry professionals and decision-makers be heard. In just a month, the initiators have brought together some of the most influential parts of the Danish construction industry around the 2025 reduction target which firms, organisations, and lawmakers can collectively commit to.
More than 630 companies and organizations in the industry have already signed up and agreed that it is necessary – and realistic – to emit a maximum of 5.8 kg CO2-eq./m2/year if politicians obligate the industry to follow the Paris Agreement as a standard. In the current national building code, the threshold value is 12.
Last week, the initiators of the Reduction Roadmap presented the updated roadmap to the Danish Parliament’s Housing Committee. Our ask for average emission standards of 5.8 kg CO2 eq./m2/year for more than 90 % of new buildings in the Danish building legislation was well-received.
Among the supporting organisations are MT Højgaard Holding, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Copenhagen Municipality, AP Pension, PensionDanmark, COWI, Ramboll, Henning Larsen Architects, and the Danish Chamber of Commerce (Dansk Erhverv). And the list expands every day.
Going forward, we continue to engage in dialogue with lawmakers and influential industry figures.
A realistic target
It is possible to achieve below 5.8 kg CO2-eq./m2/year, as demonstrated by a collection of cases published by BUILD at Aalborg University, which has mapped 25 Danish best-practice constructions in terms of climate impact.
“The industry can do it together if every firm involved in a construction project is committed to following the Paris Agreement as a standard in the building code. Large parts of the industry want to take their share of the responsibility together with our legislators,” says Mikkel Schlesinger.
About Reduction Roadmap
Reduction Roadmap is a science-based CO2 goal-setting tool developed by CEBRA, EFFEKT, and Artelia Data has been validated by Aarhus University, University of Southern Denmark – SDU, Technical University of Denmark – DTU, and Aalborg University.
In version 2.0, the Reduction Roadmap has been updated based on the report from Earth System Science Data by Forster et al. (2023) available here.
Reduction Roadmap is open source. All new results are documented and regularly communicated to the public via ReductionRoadmap.dk and LinkedIn. The first version of Reduction Roadmap was funded by the VILLUM Fonden and the philanthropic association Realdania. Reduction Roadmap 2.0 is funded by Realdania.
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