In the residential, commercial, and institutional building sector energy is used to heat and cool buildings, provide lighting, and services ranging from cooking to computers. The emissions from the building sector include those from the direct use of fossil fuels in buildings and emissions from the fuels used to provide electricity and heat to buildings.
Buildings are long lasting and community development patterns have even longer lives.
The incremental costs of the best technologies are slight at time of construction, compared with the cost of replacing energy-wasteful buildings and equipment. The technologies themselves are varied and powerful. I found an existing technical potential to meet the sector's global energy needs through 2050 with no increase in energy use from the 1990 level. Buildings vary greatly in their size, shape, function, equipment, climate, and ownership, all of which affects the mix of technologies needed to improve their performance. When they don't have to pay the full cost of the energy they use, they have less incentive to use it wisely.