Last week, several studies on CO₂ and urban planning were published. Different perspectives, the same urgency. It is good and necessary for us as a professional community to know and do more. What is our exact focus?
Three studies
BURA, LEVS architects, and Urban Climate Architects presented Low Carbon Urbanism last week: a study on embodied CO₂ from building to area. This week, CITYFÖRSTER, PosadMaxwan, and the Municipality of Rotterdam also released Carbon-Based Urbanism, a publication focusing on the influence of urban planning on different forms of daily use and associated emissions. A recent study from the University of Amsterdam (including Savini, Kopp, and Hochstenbach) approaches housing design and emissions as an issue of socio-economic inequality.
The shared message
In all these pieces, it is clear that urban planning is not a backdrop, but the most important lever to pull. All three point to similar decisions regarding location, density, and mobility.
Carbon-Based Urbanism focuses on which types of neighborhood structures lead to structurally higher emissions in various urban forms of use: from mobility to lifestyle. Low Carbon Urbanism emphasises the material basis. What emissions do density and materials (for extensive infrastructure or high-rise buildings) bring along in these current years? The UvA study adds a critical perspective on the social distribution of emissions. Different lenses, the same conclusion: urban planning choices determine climate impact.
CO₂ emissions: now or later?
With Low Carbon Urbanism, we make an important distinction: there is a time-critical difference between operational and embodied CO₂. Operational emissions can still partially change in the future due to electrification, grid greening, and behavior. Embodied CO₂, on the other hand, has a direct, irreversible impact—right now. This emission is released by our current and upcoming construction plans, precisely in the decade where emissions must be reduced the most according to Paris.
In the early phase (policy, vision, urban planning), you lock in huge amounts of embodied carbon that you cannot 'design away' later. Reuse, transformation, less new construction, material choices, and especially fewer parking garages prevent that early CO₂ peak.
Not 'either-or', but 'and-and'
Sustainable urban planning is not a matter of interpretation but coherent decision-making about space, mobility, materials, and distribution. If we take the Paris goals seriously, we need to make crucial choices now that hit multiple targets at once:
- address embodied carbon in current construction projects;
- continue to drive the material and energy transition;
- lay an urban planning foundation that stimulates sustainable behavior in the future (regardless of social background).
In other words: we need to pull multiple levers at the same time, and in the short term, embodied CO₂ is the lever with the most direct impact. Therefore, every plan should include the question: how much CO₂ are we already emitting in these crucial years, and how much can we avoid?
Getting to work
What we need for this are practical tools for designers, municipalities, and developers. Download the free PDF of Low Carbon Urbanism below.