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Prioritize energy sufficiency to decarbonize our buildings

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From Nature Human Behaviour

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We need human behavioural change to decarbonize our buildings. This requirement arises from our needs, lifestyle energy choices and interactions with buildings, and is an underexploited, yet essential demand-side opportunity for rapid and sustainable decarbonization. We propose a sufficiency-oriented approach that fosters equitable building decarbonization, while maintaining planetary boundaries.

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Fig. 1: Sufficiency is key to achieving building decarbonization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Jeetika Malik, Tianzhen Hong & Max Wei

  2. Sustainable Energy Advice Ltd, Pūponga, Aotearoa, New Zealand

    Sea Rotmann

Authors
  1. Jeetika Malik
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  2. Tianzhen Hong
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  3. Max Wei
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  4. Sea Rotmann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tianzhen Hong.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Malik, J., Hong, T., Wei, M. et al. Prioritize energy sufficiency to decarbonize our buildings. Nat Hum Behav 8, 406–410 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01752-0

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