The University of Michigan published new research that is said to be the most comprehensive study of US residential greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) and the first to deliver nationwide rankings by zip code and to find an interrelationship between affluence, residential floor space, and GGE. The researchers’ findings show that the homes of wealthy Americans are significant engines of the climate crisis generating about 25% more greenhouse gases than poorer households and up to 15 times the GGE as nearby, less affluent districts. This is because their homes are enormous, so the lighting, heating, and cooling requirements are vast.
Benjamin Goldstein, a University of Michigan researcher who led the study, said:
Although houses are becoming more energy-efficient, US household energy use and related greenhouse gas emissions are not shrinking, and this lack of progress undermines the substantial emissions reductions needed to mitigate climate change.
Despite the urgency, fundamental questions remain unanswered about U.S. household energy emissions. For example, researchers have lacked the nationwide building-level data necessary to identify the states with the most energy- and carbon-intensive housing stocks.
The researchers concluded that phasing out fossil fuels in electricity generation won’t be enough to get the US residential housing sector to meet the Paris climate agreement’s 2050 emissions-reduction targets. The most concerning aspect is that about 20% of US emissions come from residential power use. Therefore, to avoid climate catastrophe, people will need to reduce their electricity consumption and in-home fuel burning. Also, developers will have to build smaller new homes and arrange them in denser settlement patterns.
Joshua Newell, study senior author who is an associate professor at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability, said:
Our exploratory scenario-based models indicate that meaningful reductions to residential emissions will require concurrent grid decarbonization, energy retrofits, and reduced in-home fuel use. The scenarios also suggest that making new construction low-carbon will require smaller homes, which can be promoted through denser settlement patterns.
The analysis took into account data from 93 million homes, which is 78% of the national total. They used information from CoreLogic – a database of standardized tax assessor records – to evaluate the influence of building attributes (age, housing type, heating fuel), the electrical power grid, and income in driving residential emissions. The least energy-intensive dwellings (per square foot) are found in Arizona, California, and Florida, while the most energy-intensive are located in Maine, Wisconsin, and Vermont.
In addition to housing, a separate study found that the luxury lifestyle of the rich is also mostly responsible for the climate crisis. The most significant factor found to be transportation and food – how much they drive and fly around and the types of foods they eat. In that research, data from 86 countries were analyzed, and they found that the less affluent 10% consumed about 20 times less energy than the wealthier 10%.
