Date: 03/11/2022
Relevance: GS-3: Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Climate Change and GreenHouse Gasses.
Key Phrases: Sustainable Housing, Greenhouse Gas, Conventional Housing, Energy-intensive Process, Low-carbon Material, Climate Change, Recycling, GHG Footprint, Electricity Consumption, Retrofitting House, Incandescent lights, LEDs, Energy-saving Measures, Financial interventions, Multilateral Development Banks, Domestic Development Banks, Credit Enhancement Mechanism, National Housing Bank, Financially Feasibility.
Context:
- As per the latest Emission Gap Report, we are far from the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2°C, preferably 1.5°C. So here, Green Housing can play a decisive role to achieve the goal.
Key Highlights:
- Housing is a major greenhouse gas emitting sector, consuming about 24 percent of the country’s electricity and emitting over 20 percent of total GHG.
- In India, Households’ electricity consumption has trebled from 2000 to 2017 and this is projected to surge eight times over 2018-50.
Need of Green Housing:
- Country’s electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emission percentages are expected to increase as housing demand accelerates. It will make it difficult to achieve green transition targets.
- In the big cities, the land for construction is exhausted, the gardens and parks are few, and people do not get fresh air in the urban areas.
- Conventional housing materials such as concrete and steel are made with energy-intensive processes.
Green Housing
- About
- It refers to a house where there is a natural environment, which saves electricity and water costs as well as causes less damage to the environment.
- Advantages and Key Features
- They are designed in such a way that they reduce the emission of harmful gasses during and after construction and reduce soil pollution in nature.
- Green homes not only save money on higher bills but also provide many health benefits.
- Less power and water.
SUNREF Green Housing programme
- National Housing Bank (NHB) launched the SUNREF Green Housing India programme in 2017, in partnership with the AFD and with the support of the European Union (EU).
- This programme aims at:
- Reducing the negative impacts of the housing industry on the environment.
- Scaling up green and affordable housing projects in India.
- Providing low and middle income groups with green affordable housing.
- Increasing savings in energy and water bills by encouraging the development of green residential houses with efficient building material use.
Constraints:
- Builders have no economic incentives to implement sustainability, as ‘green’ homes do not command premium pricing.
- Buyers have no motivation to pay more, especially if it is rented out.
- Commercial banks are unlikely to provide debt as they wish to avoid an increase in the ‘loan-value to house-value’ ratio.
- Banks rarely provide capital for retrofitting as the borrowers are reluctant to provide their houses as collateral.
Emissions Gap Report 2022.
- The Flagship report is managed by the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Center.
- The report is the 13th edition in an annual series that provides an overview of the difference between where greenhouse emissions are predicted to be in 2030 and where they should be to avert the worst impacts of climate change.
- The report shows that updated national pledges since COP26 – held in 2021 in Glasgow, UK – make a negligible difference to predicted 2030 emissions.
- We are far from the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2°C, preferably 1.5°C.
- The report finds that only an urgent system-wide transformation
including food systems, can deliver the enormous cuts needed to
limit greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
- While other sectors are dominant in the global climate action plans, food systems are neglected.
- This often prevents the people from recognizing emissions produced as a result of their consumption and production patterns, as well as of livestock.
Way Forward:
- The use of low-carbon materials, following sustainable construction processes, and recycling building materials can lower the GHG footprint.
- An appropriate blend of active and passive design elements when
constructing, should be promoted.
- It can reduce energy usage by over 35 per cent.
- Retrofitting roofs, windows, and doors that have higher energy
performance.
- It can reduce heating and cooling demands by up to 40 per cent.
- Replacing incandescent lights with LEDs.
- It can reduce energy consumption by about 80 per cent.
- Manufacturer guarantees and warranties can be augmented with standardized performance certifications from government agencies.
- The Government and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), and
Domestic Development Banks (DDBs) can support the green housing
sector through a credit enhancement mechanism.
- Offering of Subordinate loan and partial credit guarantees on energy-efficient homes can be useful.
- Public institutions can nudge the private players with innovative financing models and policies to fund the much-needed low-carbon housing sector.
Conclusion:
- Given the advantages it offers, the incentives that the government is providing to this construction and the growing demand by the environment-conscious consumers, the future for green housing seems very bright.
Source: The Hindu BL
Mains Question:
Q. What are the major challenges for the development of sustainable green housing in India? Also suggest measures to overcome these challenges. (250 Words).
