While the building and electricity sectors contribute to a large part of this country's wealth, they also account for approximately half of all of our nation's CO2 emissions.
With pressure to address the issue of global warming, two new reports released by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change conclude that an elimination of most greenhouse gases (GHGs) from these sectors is possible over the next 50 years. Affordable technology and policy options exist to enable buildings in the U.S. to become net low-GHG energy exporters in the same time frame. However the Pew Center states that government policies are essential to provide clear direction in order to drive the massive public and private investments and choices necessary to enable such a future.
"The importance of these two sectors to both the U.S. economy and to the issue of climate change cannot be over-stated," said Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, "This research shows that we can achieve enormous reductions in the building and electric sectors, but only if we craft a clear and comprehensive policy to guide them."
The first report titled "Towards a Climate-Friendly Built Environment" was written by Marilyn Brown, Frank Southworth and Therese Stovall of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The second report titled, "U.S. Electric Power Sector and Climate Change Mitigation" was written by Granger Morgan, Jay Apt, and Lester Lave of Carnegie Mellon University.
A complete copy of this report is available at http://www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-in-depth/all_reports
Pew Center on Global Climate Change
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