(ORDO NEWS) — Chinese and German scientists have calculated that replacing concrete and metal with wood during construction will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An article about this was published in Nature Communications.
Cement is produced by firing raw materials in clinker kilns. At the same time, a lot of carbon dioxide, toxic gases and other environmentally harmful substances are released into the atmosphere.
Characteristically, the volume of these emissions is comparable to the amount of cement produced, and that is why the construction industry makes a large contribution to anthropogenic global warming – about 10%.
Scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research and their Chinese colleagues decided to simulate how profitable it would be to abandon concrete and metal in the construction of buildings up to 12 floors high.
Calculations showed that the planting of approximately 140 million hectares of forest would be required to implement these plans.
Such areas of new forest plantations, according to scientists, are quite realizable in practice. According to the authors, they will not affect agricultural land used today for growing crops.
The transition to the construction of houses and buildings from wood will allow humanity to reduce the amount of emissions associated with the production of cement and steel by about 100 billion tons by 2100, which is comparable to the total amount of CO2 emissions over several years.
Thus, the implementation of these measures will facilitate the implementation of the Paris climate agreements and limit global warming over the 21st century by 1-2 degrees.
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