Construction is becoming a CO₂ risk factor

Global construction activity is one of the central drivers of global resource consumption and the associ-ated greenhouse gas emissions. While the international community has formulated the goal of limiting global warming to well below two degrees Celsius with the Paris Climate Agreement, the CO₂ footprint of the construction sector has been rising dynamically for decades. The discrepancy between political ambi-tion and real development could become a crucial bottleneck in the coming decades. The study "Carbon footprint of the construction sector is projected to double by 2050 globally" by scientists from China, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria shows that the sector alone could be sufficient to consume the remaining CO₂ budget for the 1.5 degree target, even if other industries were fully decarbonised. The study was published in "Communications Earth & Environment".