Giving Compass' Take:

• Linda Poon reports that in order for cities to make significant progress toward their climate goals, efficient buildings must be a priority? 

• What is the most efficient way for funders to increase the number and quality of energy efficient buildings? 

• Learn about building equity and sustainable cities together.

If cities are going to curb the rise of global temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius, they'll have to address the single largest contributor, by sector, to their carbon footprint: buildings. Buildings account for roughly 50 percent of a city's total carbon emissions, and 70 percent in major cities like London, Los Angeles, and Paris.

The ultimate goal, as laid out by the World Green Building Council at COP 21 in Paris in 2015, is that by 2050—when 68 percent of the world's population is projected to live in urban areas—all buildings will only use as much energy as they generate. And to get there, a group of large cities is first tackling a closer target. Last month, the mayors of 19 cities—including New York, London, Tokyo, and Johannesburg—declared that they will enact policies and regulations that will make all new buildings carbon neutral by 2030.

The bad news is that the larger challenge is to make existing, not new, buildings more efficient. Buildings that already exist today are estimated to account for 65 percent of all buildings in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries come 2060.
Even so, changing how new buildings are built has major implications for the future. And fortunately, raising standards for new buildings—compared to retrofitting older ones—is the lower-hanging fruit.

Read the full article about more efficient buildings by Linda Poon at Pacific Standard.