Climate-Change Mitigation: Challenges and Opportunities in California's Residential Building Sector

Nazaroff, W.W, and H. Levin, 2006.  Climate-Change Mitigation: Challenges and Opportunities in California's Residential Building Sector.  Healthy Buildings 2006, Lisbon, Portugal, June 4-8, 2006.

Stabilizing atmospheric CO₂ levels in the range 450-550 ppm would require that global emissions decline to 1-2 kgC per person per day by 2100. Californians currently emit about 10 kgC per person per day, with about 12% attributable to energy use in residential buildings. To achieve climate stabilization at 450-550 ppm CO₂ with full international equity, California's per capita fossil C emissions would need to be reduced by 80-90% during this century. Achieving such large proportional reductions in residential buildings will likely require strong measures in conservation, improved energy efficiency, and greatly expanded use of energy sources that have low fossil-C emissions.