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Reviewing the 95 sociotechnical barriers to the decarbonization of buildings

E. Heinz,B. Sovacool,Thomas Kwan,Vincent Petit

Published 2025 in Nature Communications

ABSTRACT

Building decarbonization is critical to meet climate goals, given the embodied energy, and material resources needed to construct buildings, their operational energy use, and the need for new facilities for growing populations in addition to retrofitting inefficient existing structures. Here, we examine 95 sociotechnical barriers that inhibit progress on decarbonization of the building sector that can be categorized by economic, political, social, behavioral, and technical dimensions. We find that economic barriers are the most prevalent globally, followed by political barriers. The building sector’s slowness in adopting decarbonization strategies can be explained by its distinct complexity and differences among barriers by building stage, stakeholders of interest, geography, and even the forum of discussion. We also show how the use of the “carbon lock-in” framework validates the intersectional nature of barriers and infers that policy interventions to advance building decarbonization must be dynamic, local, and engage multiple dimensions simultaneously to drive change. This study identifies 95 interrelated barriers to building decarbonization, showing that social, political, and behavioral factors, alongside technical ones, inhibit the adoption of low carbon solutions across the sector.

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