New buildings should be constructed with climate-neutral building materials, Stefan Wenzel, the Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, said at the ministerial meeting "Green Building, Energy Efficiency in Buildings, and Climate Resilience in Cities" held on the sidelines of COP29 in Baku, Report informs.
Wenzel stated that the recycling and reuse of building materials is also very important:
"Changes are necessary not only for our climate but also for social and economic reasons. We often hear that energy-efficient renovation is too expensive for landlords and leads to increased rental costs. Therefore, we must ensure that climate-appropriate housing remains affordable."
The minister noted that buildings that are not built or renovated in a climate-appropriate manner in time risk becoming stranded assets: "Also, the transformation of the building sector has significant potential for job creation."
"Heating and cooling systems running on fossil fuels must be replaced to transition to technologies that can operate with renewable energy sources, such as heat pumps or centralized heating-cooling systems.
The energy efficiency of new and existing buildings must be increased. They should be transformed into zero or near-zero-emission buildings. These efforts will also help reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and increase the sustainability of our renewable energy system," Wenzel added.