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The Greatest Contribution To The Increase Of Greenhouse Gases Is Caused By, ...

The greatest contribution to the increase of greenhouse gases is caused by, as stated above, emissions of CO2 by burning fossil fuels for heating buildings. It is thus important to reduce the need for heating which can be achieved with the application of insulation through these buildings.
2.4 Contribution of Housing to CO2 Emissions
As we have seen, the construction industry is one of the most resource-intensive and environmentally unfriendly industries in the world. Domestic buildings make up sixty per cent of the total energy used by buildings, and about sixty per cent of domestic energy use is in heating, and so heating domestic buildings accounts for a massive proportion of the energy used in the UK. New, and old, buildings alike can easily reduce this massive amount of energy used for heating, to very low levels, through good design and sufficient insulation.
The problem becomes more apparent in regards to existing, traditionally build dwellings, with up to fifty per cent of Europe's buildings thought to be not insulated, and since, as we have seen, residential dwellings contribute in large numbers to overall energy usage, this generates great concern that emissions of CO2 produced by burning of fossil fuels to provide that energy massively contributes to the production of greenhouse gases and the Greenhouse effect, as explored and explained earlier in this Chapter.
2.5 Conclusions
It can be summarised that international organisations have generally agreed that the human race is directly responsible for the effect of global warming. Housing plays a very large role in the issue of global warming, since housing contributes approximately 40-50% of Europe's CO2 emissions. The problem of reducing the amount of fossil fuels that are burnt could be tackled by insulating new, and existing, houses with best performing products, such as, for example, rigid polyurethane boards which would reduce the need for heating these buildings, as they would be more energy-efficient through the insulation, thus reducing the amount of energy that is expended in heating these buildings.

Chapter 3 Response to Global Warming
International Agreements
The UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) was set up in 1972 in order to protect the environment. This programme was little more, however, than an organisation of like-minded people, and little was enacted, in terms of legislation, by this group. Following this, Agenda 21 was set up, through the Brundal Commission of 1987, but, again, little legislation was enacted. Following this, the UN Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 gathered world leaders together to discuss the problems the Earth was facing and to determine practical solutions for these problems.


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