The year 2021 was a momentous year for climate-centric issues. During the year, different parts of the world continued to be traumatised by devastations attributed to the Climate Change – unprecedented floods, severe cyclones, droughts, temperature extremes, etc. India was no exception to this phenomenon; if fact, the severity of devastations in India seemed higher than those in other countries. While India witnessed three cyclones, Gulab, Tauktae and Yaas during 2021, as many as 36 cities in 12 states of the country were reportedly shattered by unprecedented floods during the year.
On the positive front, the year 2021 witnessed renewed efforts in carbon mitigation, culminating in the Conference of Parties at Glasgow (COP-26) under the auspices of the United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention (UNFCCC), during which many climate-friendly decisions were taken. These, amongst others, included broad agreement on bracing up efforts to build resilience to climate change, to curb greenhouse gas emissions, to phase down unabated coal power – to mention only a few. By now, nearly 74 countries—accounting for almost 80 % of global GDP and 70 percent of global CO2 emissions — have pledged to achieve ‘net-zero’ carbon emission by the middle of this century. Also, more than 3,000 private sector companies have made ‘net-zero’ commitments as part of the United Nation’s “Race to Zero” campaign.
Indian Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi’s announcement at COP-26 that India will achieve ‘net zero’ carbon emission by 2070 and that 50% of its electricity demand will be met with from renewable energy sources by 2030 is indeed noteworthy. LCCF whole-heartedly welcomes this bold step. During the COP-26, the Prime Minister also made the commitment to reduce India’s projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes from now to 2030. As far as the latter is concerned, the building and construction sectors in India provide ample opportunity to mitigate emissions, and that too in a most cost-effective manner, as projected by the Global Green Building Council (Global GBC)1.
Incidentally, a recent report by Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction reveals that the global share of energy requirements for buildings and construction is as high as 36% of the total energy and the share of carbon emission stands at a whopping 37%2! The corresponding figures for India are not available. However, India – at least urban India – may not defy the world trend. The latest report on ‘India’s Energy Outlook” by the International Energy Agency (IEA) states that even at a relatively modest assumed urbanisation rate, nearly 270 million people will be added to India’s urban population over the next two decades3. This is bound to create a rapid growth in the building stock and infrastructure in the urban area. One can imagine the steep rise in the electricity demand and the consequent increase in carbon emissions in the near future. It would therefore be appropriate for the building and construction sectors in India to start taking urgent measures to mitigate their own emissions in right earnest.
Carbon emission from the built-environment sector is broadly divided into two categories, namely ‘operational carbon’ and the ‘embodied carbon’. Operational carbon encompasses emissions that arise owing to the energy-centric operations in buildings such as heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting, use of lifts, water pumps, fridges, washing machines, TVs, computers, cooking appliances, etc. The simple remedy to lessen operational carbon is to reduce energy demand by undertaking all possible energy efficiency measures and then the remaining energy requirements to be met with by renewable energy (RE) in place of fossil fuel-based energy. The guidance given by the World GBC is to ensure that all operational energy (OE) requirements of new buildings should be met with the use of RE by 2030 and all new and existing buildings by 2050. In case there is a shortfall in meeting the OE requirements from RE, it is suggested that the operational energy consumption for all buildings and infrastructure should at least be equal to the total RE production at the national level!
India is fortunate to have been bestowed with a huge RE potential, estimated to be 1000 GW-plus or even more. Thanks to the efforts put in by the government, the renewable power capacity has now crossed 156 GW, out of which the solar capacity account for 100-plus GW. Further, there has been a steep decline in the tariff of both solar and wind energy. Unfortunately, the building and construction sectors are unable to encash this fully to their advantage. Take, for example, the case of rooftop solar (RTS). While the government has set the target of achieving 40 GW capacity through RTS by 2022, the latest report of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy states that so far only 3.7 GW RTS capacity has been installed in the country and over 2.6 GW capacity is under installation in the residential segment4. Why can’t the numerous existing and upcoming housing societies and all public utility structures tap the RE to the maximum extent? Architects, structural engineers and builders need to take up this issue on priority by specifying the use of solar/wind energy for all new construction and renovations. If this is done, it may not be difficult to achieve the 40 GW target within a reasonable time frame. In fact, the building and infrastructure sectors may be capable of tapping much larger RE! The use of RE will reduce not only the carbon footprint of construction but will also provide a substantial benefit to the users by way of reduction in their energy bills.
Besides operational carbon, it is also essential to reduce the embodied carbon from the built-environment dramatically. Embodied carbon is associated with the emissions of carbon during the five main stages of building’s/structure’s entire Life Cycle i.e. – product stage, construction stage, operation stage, deconstruction stage and beyond life cycle stage. It is reported that nearly 50% of embodied carbon is coming from the “Product” stage i.e. owing to the energy used in the raw material extraction, processing, transport and manufacture.
The team of architect, structural designer and construction engineer are inevitably required to take appropriate measures to ensure that the design and construction of a structure or a facility is robust, serviceable, safe and durable. In addition to these aspects, now they also need to seriously consider ways and means to reduce the embodied carbon generated during the entire life span of the structure. Therefore, before constructing any new building or structure, it would be ideal if the architect and structural designer consider different alternative designs, ensure that all designs satisfy the safety and durability aspects and in addition calculate the embodied carbons of each alternative and then choose the alternative that gives the lowest embodied carbon. Incidentally, the alternative design with lowest embodied carbon would usually emerge as the most cost-effective design! In this exercise, it will however be necessary to have the global warming potential (GWP) values of different materials used in construction. It would be the responsibility of the material producers to provide the GWP values of their products, duly certified by the accredited certification body.
It is interesting to note that the initiatives of ‘net zero carbon’ from built-environment has come from some of the leading professional organizations of architects and structural engineers from advanced countries. While most of these organizations have pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, suitable guidelines and supporting literature (see box as an example) have already been developed with participation of leading experts for the assistance of practicing professionals from their respective countries.
In India, no such initiative has emerged from the leading professional bodies of our construction industry. While the recent experience of sister organizations in evolving net-zero pathways would certainly be valuable to us, we should not blindly copy the same. We need to develop our own roadmap. India, being a developing country, cannot afford to compromise on its economic development agenda, which is currently leaning heavily on coal-based thermal power and which may not get reduced drastically even by 2040 or so. At the same time, we cannot also afford to ignore the threatening Damocles sword of the climate change hanging on us. It is therefore essential for India to delicately balance between the developmental needs and the carbon reduction requirements. This is indeed a great challenge. India’s building and construction sector needs to seriously ponder over the challenge and come out with an appropriate response.
Since the Indian government has already pledged to achieve ‘net zero’ carbon by 2070, it would be appropriate that voluntary efforts of making reduction in carbon footprints should emerge from the building and construction sectors. LCCF would be happy to actively participate in such efforts.
References
- “Bringing embodied carbon upfront: Coordinated action for the building and construction sector to tackle embodied carbon” World Green Building Council, September 2019.
- “2020 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction” Global Alliance for Building and Construction, data adopted from “IEA World Energy Statistics and Balances” and “Energy Technology Perspectives”, 2020.
- India Energy Outlook 2021” Special Report, World Energy Outlook, International Energy Agency http://www.iea.org/
- Annual Report 2020-21, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, 2022