China's housing industry must look for ways to lower carbon emissions in order to develop further, according to experts attending the China International Housing Industry Expo (CIHIE) 2023 launched on Monday in Beijing.

China has one of the world's largest real estate markets. While the housing industry built homes for the country's 1.4 billion people, its carbon footprint is so large that China must take careful steps, the experts said.

The carbon problem

"China's green investing last year was 3.8 times that of the U.S.," said Chai Qimin, director of research on strategic planning at the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation. "With that said, the West is still pressuring us to achieve carbon neutrality ahead of our current schedule."

The direct carbon emission of China's urban-rural development peaked in 2016 at around 600 million tonnes, according to Ding Hongtao from the Center of Science and Technology and industrialization Development, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

"But challenges are still ahead," Ding told a sidebar forum of the expo. "Many urgent problems need to be solved concerning construction, maintenance and infrastructure."

Ding estimated that the overall carbon emission of the sector will peak by 2039 at 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (tCO2) if no more measures are implemented.

With proper measures to control emission the peak could arrive before 2030 at 2.7 billion tCO2.

The measures may include a shift of monitoring from power consumption to carbon emission, a shift from individual technologies to integrated solutions and a shift from individual buildings to more systematic solutions.

Craftsmanship and modern tech

One possible solution to the carbon problem in the housing industry is wood, which was the main building material in ancient China but later overthrown by steel and concrete.

"Based on the latest numbers," said Lu Weidong, deputy dean of Nanjing Tech University, at a sidebar forum of the expo. "The construction sector is responsible of more than half of the total carbon emissions in our society."

"Replacing the carbon-heavy concrete with the good old wood is getting more attention in our country," Lu added.

Guests from all over China shared their experience with modern wooden architecture at the forum, speaking highly of the potential of wooden design with Chinese culture.

"Our clients are extremely satisfied," said Le Wei, a guest from east China's Yangzhou City. "They said the building was like grown up from the soil and formed symbiosis with the environment."