  Surpassing the two large emission sectors of transportation and industry, the
building sector accounted for 34% and 37% of global energy consumption and
carbon emissions in 2021, respectively. The building sector, the final piece to
be addressed in the transition to net-zero carbon emissions, requires a
comprehensive, multisectoral strategy for reducing emissions. Until now, the
absence of data on global building floorspace has impeded the measurement of
building carbon intensity (carbon emissions per floorspace) and the
identification of ways to achieve carbon neutrality for buildings. For this
study, we develop a global building stock model (GLOBUS) to fill that data gap.
Our study's primary contribution lies in providing a dataset of global building
stock turnover using scenarios that incorporate various levels of building
renovation. By unifying the evaluation indicators, the dataset empowers
building science researchers to perform comparative analyses based on
floorspace. Specifically, the building stock dataset establishes a reference
for measuring carbon emission intensity and decarbonization intensity of
buildings within different countries. Further, we emphasize the sufficiency of
existing buildings by incorporating building renovation into the model.
Renovation can minimize the need to expand the building stock, thereby
bolstering decarbonization of the building sector.
