The energy and carbon footprints of urban housing and transport: current trends and future prospects

This chapter examines prospects for a decarbonisation of Australia's built environment and, in particular, its two largest contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: housing and transport. Australian cities are responsible for at least two-thirds of the nation's GHG emissions which average 26 tonnes per person per year, nearly double the OECD average . Now acknowledged from a scientific perspective as a catalyst for anthropogenic (i.e. human induced) global warming and climate change, GHG signatures associated with all classes of products and activities are under increasing scrutiny. Carbon is the new 21st century performance metric linked inextricably to the many sources of energy now available to drive economic, social and urban development. Surprisingly, no GHG metric appears in the extensive set of indicators featured in the State of Australian Cities 2011 report. In the context of city planning and practice as elsewhere, 'what gets measured gets managed'. In Australian cities, approximately one-fifth of all GHG emissions from end use energy consumption can be directly attributed to domestic transport-and-housing-centred activities. Further emissions result from materials used for and construction of buildings and infrastructure, and goods and services consumed by households. As such they constitute significant targets for sectoral programs directed at energy efficiency and GHG reduction. For some time now, cities have been seen as both a source of major environmental problems as well as holding the potential to address many of these challenges. What outcomes do we want for these sectors and the built environment more generally? How are we going to get there? Where is it best to intervene? Where have past and present policy settings made an impact? This chapter examines the key factors that are linked to the consumption of energy and generation of GHG emissions from the built environment.