Building and construction are responsible for 39% of all global carbon emissions. Energy to heat, cool and light buildings accounts for 28% of emissions, with the remaining 11% from embodied carbon, emissions associated with materials and construction processes. The Green Building Council, backed by companies such as HeidelbergCement, Skanska, a construction group, and Google, has issued a report showing how carbon emissions could be eliminated throughout the whole building lifecycle, but warns change will not happen without a radical shift in how industry works together

Renewable energy employed 11 million people at the end of 2018, according to the sixth edition of the Renewable Energy and Jobs – Annual Review 2019 by the International Renewable Energy Agency. Thirty-nine of all renewable energy jobs were in China, and 32% of renewable energy jobs were held by women, says the report. Solar photovoltaic (PV) remained the top employer among renewable energy technologies in 2018, comprising a third of the sector’s jobs. Asia hosted over three million PV jobs, nearly nine-tenths of the global total

Introducing the concept of Energy Return on Capital Invested (EROCI), this report from BNP Paribas looks at the economics of oil versus renewables for road transport and warns the rapid decarbonisation of the utility sector — and resultant stranded fossil fuel-based assets — should serve as a warning to the oil industry. Renewables combined with electric vehicles yield six to seven times more energy than a similar outlay on oil for gasoline-powered light-duty vehicles and three to four times more than diesel-powered vehicles