Analytical Approach Of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Policies During Building’s Life Cycle And Its Application

It has been a consensus that greenhouse gas emission is one of the main reasons ofglobal warming. The implementation of greenhouse gas emission reduction and lowcarbon economy development has been listed into the government’s long-term plan inChina. Greenhouse gas emission from buildings is one of the main sources ofgreenhouse gas emissions. Reducing the greenhouse gas emission from building, whichis effective and inexpensive, is the most remarkable reduction field. Due to the negativeexternalities of greenhouse gas emissions, the market can not be self-regulated toachieve emission reduction. The government needs to conduct policy tools to regulatethe interests of all the stakeholders and to promote the implementation of emissionreduction. In this paper, the measures, barriers and policy instruments of emissionreduction of single buildings were researched. The building emssion policy advices inChina were proposed.Firstly, this research defined the concept of building’s life cycle and the accountingboundary of greenhouse gas emissions during building’s life cycle. The accountingsystem and calculation formula of greenhouse gas emissions during building’s life cyclewere built up. The main stakeholders during buidling’s life cycle were identified.According to the abilities of the stakeholders to determine the quantity of greenhousegas emissions, Greenhouse Gas Emission Responsibility Model was established toanalyze the stakeholders’ responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions during building’slife cycle.The categories and functions of the building greenhouse gas emission reductionpolicy instruments were reviewed and analyzed. The Policy Correlation System was setup to identify the relationships among the policy instruments. Based on Greenhouse GasEmission Responsibility Model, cost and benefit analysis was applied to clarify themechanisms of the emission reduction barriers and identify the policy instruments toremove the emission reduction barriers. According to the policy correlation system, themain emission reduction policy instruments were summarizd. Using the knowledge andexperience of the experts from the consulting project, evaluation index for buildinggreenhouse gas emission reduction policies was identified and weighted by Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to help the government make decision on choosing theemission reduction policies.Based on Greenhouse Gas Emission Accounting System and Responsibility Modeland Policy Function and Correlation System, the main greenhouse gas emissionreduction measures, barriers and policies during building’s life cycle were identified andanalyzed, using both qualitative methods (literature review, expert seminars, thematicinterviews, questionnaire surveys, etc.) and quantitative methods (case study). Theresults from qualitative and quantitative analysis were compared and mutual verified tovalidate the applicability and the analysis results of Greenhouse Gas EmissionAccounting System and Responsibility Model and Policy Function and CorrelationSystem. Qualitative and quantitative policies suggessions were proposed based on thequalitative and quantitative analysis.Finally, the current building greenhouse gas emission reduction policies of Chinawere summarized. Using the policy evaluation index, the current greenhouse gasreduction policies were analyzed and evaluated. The defects of the current buildinggreenhouse gas emission reduction policies were summaried to put forward the specificpolicy recommendations. The building greenhouse gas emission reduction policysystem was introduced to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction during building’slife cycle in China. According to the results of qualitative and quantitative analysis, thebuilding implementation suggestion of the greenhouse gas reduction policies wasproposed.