48 | Feature: Decarbonising Construction
SUMMARY
■The global population will likely hit 10 billion by 2050
■The world will need to add 190 billion m2
decade for the next 40 years
■The latest mass timber buildings store thousands of tonnes of carbon
KEY TO CRACKING CLIMATE CHANGE
A new book looks at wood’s potential to decarbonise construction. Mike Jeffree reports
Paul Brannen’s new book does what it says on the tin, or rather the cover. It’s called ‘Timber! How wood can help save the world from climate breakdown’ and it goes on to explain exactly how in 200 breezily written pages.
Mr Brannen wrote it in a personal capacity, but it clearly draws on his experience as public affairs director at the Confederation of European Woodworking industries (CEI-Bois) and his time as a Member of the European Parliament, where he was involved with climate change legislation. He also spent 15 years at relief and development charity Christian Aid, where he focused on the impact of climate change on poverty around the world.
The core focus of the book is on the critical need to decarbonise construction and buildings in use if we are to slow and ultimately halt global warming. Combined, these account for an estimated 39% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Moreover, population growth, writes Mr Brannen, means we are going to have to construct a huge volume of new housing in the next 25 years, making it more imperative still that we build greener.
“In 2020 the global population was
approximately eight billion. By 2050 it will likely hit 10 billion,” he writes. “The majority of these two billion additional people will be in the Global South, and all will need somewhere to live. They will mostly live in urban areas and will be housed in high- density, high-rise buildings. To meet this construction demand, the world will need to add 190 billion m2
of new buildings every
Above: Mjøstjårnet in Brumunddal, Norway, designed by Voll Arkitekter, is 18 storeys and 85.4m high PHOTO: RICARDO FOTO
decade for the next 40 years.” Building conventionally, he maintains, will result in massive demand for cement, steel
TTJ | September/October 2024 |
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and other construction materials, making this “wave of new construction a major source of greenhouse gas emissions”.
The book quotes carbon finance company Aureus Earth.
“Without intervention, business-as-usual construction would alone consume 60% of the remaining global carbon budget (500GtCO2
e) if humanity is to limit global
temperature rise to 1.5°C,” it said. So-called ‘conventional’ building materials, notably concrete, steel and bricks and blocks, the book stresses, are all based on finite materials and are energy intensive to produce and use.
“There can be no solution to climate change unless we reduce the emissions associated with concrete, steel and their fellow carbon- intensive building materials,” states Mr Brannen. “This is where wood comes in as an alternative building material. By using much more to construct and renovate our built environment, we can actively reduce our emissions.”
Sustainably managed forests are not only renewable, he adds, but absorb CO2
atmosphere until they are fully grown and ready to be harvested.
“While it may seem a shame to fell a tree in its prime, from a climate perspective this is the ideal time to do so before growth and hence carbon absorption slows and stops,” he maintains. “We can then move the maximum amount of carbon store in the timber into wooden products in the built environment, for example, for house frames, floorboards, beams and roof joists.”
He quotes European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on exploiting the potential of wood’s carbon sequestration in the built environment. “We know that the
from the of new buildings every
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