IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i14p6214-d1439321.html

Review: The Economics Landscape for Building Decarbonization

Author

Listed:
  • Ali Madadizadeh

    (School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada)

  • Kamran Siddiqui

    (Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Western University, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada)

  • Amir A. Aliabadi

    (School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada)

Abstract

As efforts to mitigate climate change become increasingly urgent, the need to address the environmental impact of the built environment has gained significant attention. Buildings, as major contributors to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, have a substantial embodied and operational carbon footprint resulting from their construction materials, practices, and lifetime operation. This paper examines the economic landscape of strategies and policies aimed at reducing the embodied and operational carbon footprint of buildings on a global scale, with specific case studies from various national contexts. It delves into various innovative approaches, including economic analysis techniques, market instruments, market demands, and the role of government incentives to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings. The study highlights the crucial role of government policies, financial incentives, and market forces in promoting sustainable practices and fostering the adoption of low-carbon alternatives. By shedding light on the economic dimensions of reducing the carbon footprint of buildings, this research aims to facilitate informed decision-making by policymakers, engineers, and other stakeholders, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable and climate-resilient built environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Ali Madadizadeh & Kamran Siddiqui & Amir A. Aliabadi, 2024. "Review: The Economics Landscape for Building Decarbonization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-28, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:14:p:6214-:d:1439321
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/14/6214/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/14/6214/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Koch, Nicolas & Fuss, Sabine & Grosjean, Godefroy & Edenhofer, Ottmar, 2014. "Causes of the EU ETS price drop: Recession, CDM, renewable policies or a bit of everything?—New evidence," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 676-685.
    2. Chevallier, Julien, 2009. "Carbon futures and macroeconomic risk factors: A view from the EU ETS," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 614-625, July.
    3. David Anthoff & Richard Tol, 2013. "Erratum to: The uncertainty about the social cost of carbon: A decomposition analysis using fund," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 121(2), pages 413-413, November.
    4. Zeeshan Khan & Muhsin Ali & Dervis Kirikkaleli & Salman Wahab & Zhilun Jiao, 2020. "The impact of technological innovation and public‐private partnership investment on sustainable environment in China: Consumption‐based carbon emissions analysis," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1317-1330, September.
    5. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4210 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2009. "Market-Based Policy Options to Control U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 5-27, Spring.
    7. Sherif, Yosef S & Kolarik, William J, 1981. "Life cycle costing: Concept and practice," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 287-296.
    8. Pyrgou, Andri & Kylili, Angeliki & Fokaides, Paris A., 2016. "The future of the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme in Europe: The case of photovoltaics," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 94-102.
    9. Chang-Jing Ji & Yu-Jie Hu & Bao-Jun Tang, 2018. "Research on carbon market price mechanism and influencing factors: a literature review," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 92(2), pages 761-782, June.
    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. Mariana Januário & Ricardo Gomes & Patrícia Baptista & Paulo Ferrão, 2024. "Integrated Energy and Environmental Modeling to Design Cost-Effective Building Solutions at a Regional Level," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-33, November.
    2. Zayed F. Zeadat, 2025. "Building a Sustainable Future: Tackling Carbon Challenges in Jordan’s Multi-Family Apartments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-17, June.
    3. Jingjing Liu & Hanchao Liu & Yun Liu, 2025. "A Sustainability-Oriented Framework for Life Cycle Environmental Cost Accounting and Carbon Financial Optimization in Prefabricated Steel Structures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-26, May.

    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. Ping Wei & Jingzi Zhou & Xiaohang Ren & Luu Duc Toan Huynh, 2025. "Financialisation of the European Union Emissions Trading System and its influencing factors in quantiles," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 925-940, January.
    2. Huang, Wenyang & Zhao, Jianyu & Wang, Xiaokang, 2024. "Model-driven multimodal LSTM-CNN for unbiased structural forecasting of European Union allowances open-high-low-close price," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    3. Yaqi Wu & Chen Zhang & Po Yun & Dandan Zhu & Wei Cao & Zulfiqar Ali Wagan, 2021. "Time–frequency analysis of the interaction mechanism between European carbon and crude oil markets," Energy & Environment, , vol. 32(7), pages 1331-1357, November.
    4. Fang Zhang & Zhengjun Zhang, 2020. "The tail dependence of the carbon markets: The implication of portfolio management," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-17, August.
    5. Li, Yan & Feng, Tian-tian & Liu, Li-li & Zhang, Meng-xi, 2023. "How do the electricity market and carbon market interact and achieve integrated development?--A bibliometric-based review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    6. Rafaty, Ryan & Dolphin, Geoffroy & Pretis, Felix, 2025. "Carbon pricing and the elasticity of CO2 emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    7. Li, Houjian & Li, Qingman & Huang, Xinya & Guo, Lili, 2023. "Do green bonds and economic policy uncertainty matter for carbon price? New insights from a TVP-VAR framework," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    8. Huang, Wenyang & Wang, Huiwen & Wei, Yigang, 2023. "Identifying the determinants of European carbon allowances prices: A novel robust partial least squares method for open-high-low-close data," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    9. Huang, Wenyang & Wang, Huiwen & Qin, Haotong & Wei, Yigang & Chevallier, Julien, 2022. "Convolutional neural network forecasting of European Union allowances futures using a novel unconstrained transformation method," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    10. Wang, Qiao, 2024. "Carbon pricing and the commodity risk premium," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    11. Minggang Wang & Chenyu Hua & Hua Xu, 2022. "Dynamic Linkages among Carbon, Energy and Financial Markets: Multiplex Recurrence Network Approach," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-23, May.
    12. Xu, Jia & Tan, Xiujie & He, Gang & Liu, Yu, 2019. "Disentangling the drivers of carbon prices in China's ETS pilots — An EEMD approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1-9.
    13. Saedaseul Moon & Deok-Joo Lee & Taegu Kim & Kyung-Taek Kim, 2019. "An Estimation of Market-Based Carbon-Emission Prices Using Comparative Analogy: A Korean Case," The Energy Journal, , vol. 40(1_suppl), pages 259-276, June.
    14. Yuanxin Liu & Xu Luo & Shuo He & Jiahai Yuan & Yao Tao, 2025. "Risk identification, analysis, and solution to carbon finance development in China: An improved DEMATEL-ISM approach under fuzzy environment," Energy & Environment, , vol. 36(6), pages 2688-2721, September.
    15. Reckling, Dennis, 2016. "Variance risk premia in CO2 markets: A political perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 345-354.
    16. Joao Leitao & Joaquim Ferreira & Ernesto Santibanez‐Gonzalez, 2021. "Green bonds, sustainable development and environmental policy in the European Union carbon market," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 2077-2090, May.
    17. Bruninx, Kenneth & Ovaere, Marten & Delarue, Erik, 2020. "The long-term impact of the market stability reserve on the EU emission trading system," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    18. Vlad-Cosmin Bulai & Alexandra Horobet & Oana Cristina Popovici & Lucian Belascu & Sofia Adriana Dumitrescu, 2021. "A VaR-Based Methodology for Assessing Carbon Price Risk across European Union Economic Sectors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-21, December.
    19. Konstantinos Bisiotis & Dimitris Christopoulos & George Tzougas, 2026. "Forecasting Carbon Prices: A Literature Review," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 45(2), pages 496-529, March.
    20. Chai, Shanglei & Zhou, P., 2018. "The Minimum-CVaR strategy with semi-parametric estimation in carbon market hedging problems," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 64-75.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:14:p:6214-:d:1439321. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.