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The rapidly growing carbon emissions of residential building operations have become an obstacle to China’s commitment to achieving its carbon-neutral goals by 2060, but they also demonstrate great carbon mitigation potential. To help buildings reach carbon neutrality targets, this study decomposes the drivers of carbon emissions and evaluates the changes in carbon mitigation of residential buildings across 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2018. The results indicate that (1) the operational carbon intensity increased in most provinces and the average annual growth rate across the 30 provinces was 4.2%; (2) from 2001 to 2018, North China and Northeast China had the highest average annual carbon mitigation intensity, at 602.7 and 376.9 kg of carbon dioxide per household, respectively. However, Northwest China had the highest carbon mitigation efficiency, with a carbon mitigation rate of 23.5%; and (3) in most cases, the total carbon mitigations of the operational residential buildings assessed at the provincial scale higher than those assessed nationwide, with a difference of 14.4 million tons of carbon dioxide on average. In addition, this study reviewed the energy efficiency codes for residential buildings and summarized effective energy efficiency measures. Overall, this study fills a gap in our understanding of carbon mitigation tools and provides a reference for the evaluation of historical carbon mitigation effects in the operation of residential buildings.

The rapid growth of energy consumption in commercial building operations has hindered the pace of carbon emission reduction in the building sector in China. This study used historical data to model the carbon emissions of commercial building operations, the LASSO regression was applied to estimate the model results, and the whale optimization algorithm was used to optimize the nonlinear parameter. The key findings show the following: (1) The major driving forces of carbon emissions from commercial buildings in China were found to be the population size and energy intensity of carbon emissions, and their elastic coefficients were 0.6346 and 0.2487, respectively. (2) The peak emissions of the commercial building sector were 1264.81 MtCO2, and the peak year was estimated to be 2030. Overall, this study analyzed the historical emission reduction levels and prospective peaks of carbon emissions from China’s commercial buildings from a new perspective. The research results are helpful for governments and decision makers to formulate effective emission reduction policies and can also provide references for the low-carbon development of other countries and regions.

A timely analysis for carbon emission reduction in buildings is an effective global response to the crisis of climate change. The logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) decomposition analysis approach has been extensively used to assess the carbon emission reduction potential of the buildings sector. In order to simplify the calculation process and to expand its application scope, a new open-source Python tool (PyLMDI) developed in this article is used to compute the results of LMDI decomposition analysis, including multiplicative and additive decomposition. Users can quickly obtain the decomposition result by initializing the input data through a simple class data structure. In addition, the carbon emissions from commercial buildings are used as a numerical example to demonstrate the function of PyLMDI. In summary, PyLMDI is a potential calculation tool for index decomposition analysis that can provide calculation guidance for carbon emission reduction in the buildings sector. The data and codes for the numerical example are also included.

Due to large energy consumption and carbon emissions (ECCE) in the building sector, there is huge potential for carbon emission reduction, and this will strongly influence peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality in the future. To get a better sense of the current research situation and future trends and to provide a valuable reference and guidance for subsequent research, this study presents a summary of carbon peak and carbon neutrality (CPCN) in buildings using a bibliometric approach. Three areas are addressed in the review through the analysis of 364 articles published from 1990–2021: (1) Which countries, institutions, and individuals have conducted extensive and in-depth research on CPCN in buildings, and what is the status quo of their collaboration and contributions? (2) What subjects and topics have aroused wide interest and enthusiasm among scholars, and what are their time trajectories? (3) What journals and authors have grabbed the attention of many scholars, and what are the research directions related to them? Moreover, we propose future research directions. Filling these gaps will enrich the research body of CPCN and overcome current limitations by developing more methods and exploring other practical applications.

Carbon neutrality has positive impacts on people, nature and the economy, and buildings represent the “last mile” sector in the transition to carbon neutrality. Carbon neutrality is characterized by the decarbonization of operations and maintenance, in addition to zero emissions in electricity and other industry sectors. Taking China’s commercial buildings as an example, this study is the first to perform an extensive data analysis for a step-wise carbon neutral roadmap of building operations via the analysis of a dynamic emission scenario. The results reveal that the carbon emissions abatement of commercial building operations from 2001 to 2018 was 1460.85 (±574.61) mega-tons of carbon dioxide (Mt CO2). The carbon emissions of commercial building operations will peak in the year 2039 (±5) at 1364.31 (±258.70) Mt, with emission factors and energy intensity being the main factors influencing the carbon peak. To move toward carbon neutral status, an additional 169.73 Mt CO2 needs to be cut by 2060, and the low emission path toward carbon neutrality will lead to the realization of the carbon peak of commercial buildings in 2024, with total emissions of 921.71 Mt. It is believed that cutting emissions from the operation of buildings in China will require a multi-sectoral synergistic strategy. It is suggested that government, residents, enterprises, and other stakeholders must better appreciate the challenges to achieve a substantial carbon reduction and the need for urgent action in the building sector in order to achieve carbon neutrality.