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Towards an EU Agenda for Low-carbon Buildings High-Level Seminar In her Political Guidelines, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has proposed a European Affordable Housing Plan. New and innovative housing can contribute, for example, by reducing the need for heating and cooling through innovative materials, better design and planning, and re-using and recycling materials as a tool for carbon storage and a localized component of the energy system. High-Level Seminar Workshop on Showcases The built environment will be one of the priorities on the agenda of the new Commission. Following the focus on operational carbon, i.e., the carbon emitted

How can we build more with fewer materials and greenhouse gas emissions? How can low-resource and low-emissions buildings become an EU standard? These were the topics at a top-class panel discussion chaired by the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS), which took place in Brussels on 6 July 2023 in the framework of the ReConstruct platform, which is a joint initiative by the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) and CEPS. The updated EU Industrial Strategy emphasizes a rapid transition to low-carbon, digital, and more resilient construction. This will require cooperation among many stakeholders, including governments, both at the EU

Back in the 20th century, in order to reconcile the need for affordability and reliability, electricity operators ran big, inflexible plants flat out to cover the minimum demand level, or “baseload”. This they supplemented with smaller, flexible “peaking” plants to match demand at all times. It worked well as long as those big baseload plants delivered the cheapest power. Three things have changed, however, and the concept of baseload is in effect dead. The Economist

In the new process, the pulverized limestone is dissolved in the acid at one electrode and high-purity carbon dioxide is released, while calcium hydroxide, generally known as lime, precipitates out as a solid at the other. The calcium hydroxide can then be processed in another step to produce the cement, which is mostly calcium silicate. World Economic Forum