Climate resilience has emerged as a key priority for the Biden administration. President Joe Biden has announced an ambitious goal to cut the nation’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in half by 2030, while the Build Back Better Act (BBB) sets aside $495 billion for a variety of climate initiatives, including tax incentives to transition energy production away from coal and natural gas and toward solar and wind, energy-efficient building retrofits, and electric vehicle tax credits. The BBB also calls for substantial investments ($166 billion) in housing by upgrading the nation’s aging public housing stock and expanding subsidies to low-income renters.

However, the BBB largely ignores an essential channel through which housing impacts climate change: our land use and housing development practices.

Three features of land use and housing development are particularly important for reducing GHG emissions. First, building homes near job centers and public transportation reduces vehicle miles traveled—a major source of GHG emissions. Second, mixed-use development that integrates housing with stores, restaurants, and services allows people to run daily errands and socialize by walking or cycling instead of driving. Third, small homes—including townhouses, duplexes, and apartments in multifamily buildings—use less energy than single-family detached homes.

To illustrate the failings of our current system, we analyze where new housing has been built and what type of structures that new housing is across the Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. metro areas. We found that over the past 30 years, most new homes in these metro areas have been built in suburban and exurban communities, with single-family homes making up roughly 70% of new homes—exactly the opposite of climate-friendly growth.

Read the full article about climate change and land use by Rushaine Goulbourne and Jenny Schuetz at Brookings.