Building Energy Sufficiency to Support the Clean Energy Transition: A Review and Perspective

The looming climate emergency coupled with the present-day energy crisis has led to an urgent need to decarbonize the building stock for a clean energy transition. However, the sector is not at pace with the Paris Agreement goals and requires deep systematic changes to achieve the 2050 net-zero targets. This paper presents energy sufficiency as an approach to accelerate building decarbonization that goes beyond energy efficient and renewable energy technologies and leverages lifestyle choices and practices to achieve the targeted climate goals. We synthesize the existing knowledge on sufficiency in the buildings domain encompassing empirical studies, estimating up to 48% energy savings and 54% GHG emissions reduction potential of sufficiency actions, and the possible approaches for implementation to develop a comprehensive understanding of sufficiency potential in the building sector. We also present different categories of sufficiency measures and identify the related policy and technological innovations required to implement them. Lastly, we discuss the opportunities for sufficiency-oriented building decarbonization within the national policies and roadmaps. This review intends to provide insights into the development of sufficiency-oriented strategies and policies for enabling a just energy transition in the building sector.