Process of Community-based Sustainable CO₂ Management

According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), many countries around the world have been concerned with reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Reducing the level of building energy consumption is particularly important in bringing GHG down. Because of this, many countries including the US and the EU are enforcing energy-related policies. However, these policies are focused on management of single types of buildings such as public buildings and office buildings, instead of management on a national level. Thus, although various policies have been enforced in many countries, $CO_2$ management on a national level is still not an area of focus. Therefore, this study proposed a community-based $CO_2$ management process that allows government-led GHG management. The minimum unit of the community in this study is a plot, and the process consists of three steps. First, the current condition of the GHG emission was identified by plot. Second, based on the identified results, the GHG emission reduction target was distributed per plot by reflecting the weighted value according to (i) the target $CO_2$ reduction in the buildings in the standard year, (ii) region, and (iii) building usage and size. Finally, to achieve the allocated target reduction, building energy management was executed according to the properties of the building located on each plot. It can be expected that the proposed community-based $CO_2$ management process will enable government-level GHG management, through which environment-friendly building construction can be promoted.