The building challenged to reduce its CO² emissions more quickly while preserving its jobs

"CO² emissions from the building sector have reached an unprecedented level," warned the UN on Wednesday in an annual report on the subject, after a similar finding a year earlier.

This study concerns both the energy used during the construction of buildings and that consumed by those that already exist. In total, the United Nations estimates that the sector emitted ten billion tonnes of CO² in 2019.

The latter is the main greenhouse gas, whose presence in the atmosphere contributes to global warming.

Several countries, including members of the European Union, are committed to achieving "carbon neutrality" by 2050, that is to say not emitting more CO² than they consume, at term of an international agreement signed five years ago, that of Paris.

But, at its current rate of energy consumption, the building industry will be far from it. The UN believes that it should accelerate its efforts much more, even if they are already notable.

“In 2019, for the first time in three years, investments increased in low-energy buildings,” notes the UN, although they still only represent a marginal share.

In this context, in recent months, several giants of the sector have committed to polluting less during the coming decade.

At the start of the year, it was Vinci who promised to reduce its CO² emissions by 40% by 2030, promising to devote several hundred million euros of investment.

This Wednesday, its big competitor, Bouygues, announced similar objectives. At the same time, it promises to reduce by 30% the direct emissions of its road and rail works subsidiary, Colas, and by 40% those of its other construction activities.

Golden showcase

"Things do not fall into place quickly enough so we consider that it is the responsibility of economic players to propose a certain number of measures to limit our CO² footprint", explained Olivier Roussat, number two in the group, during 'a conference.

The group's ambitions go, for example, through the increased use of concrete for less polluting manufacture. Usually, cement produced by heating materials to extremely high temperatures, therefore using a lot of fuel, must be used.

But Bouygues and Vinci are only a showcase for the sector. Behind these two groups, which are part of the CAC 40 and achieve tens of billions of euros in turnover, the building world is split into a myriad of larger or smaller players.

They are often less enthusiastic about setting environmental goals, which amounts to imposing costly constraints on themselves in a world where margins are seldom flourishing.

In France, the building is grumbling in particular at the introduction next year of new standards on new buildings.

Detailed at the end of November, this regulation, known as RE 2020, aims to reduce the entire sector's CO² emissions by at least 30% in ten years.

"The objectives and deadlines announced (...) seem unrealistic, both economically and in terms of the sector's ability to adapt to these radical changes," responded the French Building Federation (FFB), the main organization of the sector.

The government itself recognizes that these new standards will make the construction of buildings more expensive, a choice that the sector considers particularly inadequate in the midst of the economic crisis resulting from the pandemic.

"There are tens of thousands of jobs unnecessarily endangered in industry and construction," said Olivier Salleron, president of the FFB, who also believes that a poor household will have more and more difficulty in pay for the construction of a home.