New research shows the world builds the equivalent of a New York-sized city every month, releasing massive amounts of embodied carbon. A study on Australian office buildings projects 138 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from 2024 to 2049, with embodied carbon set to overtake operating emissions as the main source. The report highlights that current building practices exceed carbon budgets aligned with 1.5°C and 2.0°C pathways. Key solutions include regulating embodied carbon, as Denmark and France have done, and adopting retrofit-first policies to reuse existing structures. The Quay Quarter Tower in Sydney, which upcycled two-thirds of an old building, saved around 8,000 tonnes of embodied carbon. Without policy changes, the construction sector will continue to blow its carbon budget within years.
