Estimating Global, High-Resolution Onsite Building Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Buildings account for a significant portion of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, yet the building sector lacks high spatial and temporal resolution emissions estimates that could help drive emissions reduction actions. This report presents a new methodology for estimating GHG emissions at the asset level. The findings allow municipal-level analysis of individual buildings’ emissions for any community in the world.

These data insights can inform building GHG reduction efforts. The data also reveal that 10% of direct onsite building emissions are concentrated within only 38 functional urban areas and 25% of these emissions are concentrated within 259 functional urban areas, globally.

This analysis is part of the Climate TRACE partnership, a global nonprofit coalition of a dozen organizations—including Duke University—that is harnessing technology to create the world’s largest and most comprehensive inventory of emissions.