UN-Habitat says inefficient use of housing stock drives land consumption

Inefficient use of housing stock increases land consumption.

Report informs that Ombretta Tempra, head of the Land, Housing and Shelter Section at the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and a leading housing expert, said this at the "Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Working Group on Adequate Housing for All: Intersessional Meeting on Housing Resilience and Sustainability," held within the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku.

According to her, housing provision and the natural environment interact in various ways:

"First, of course, the housing sector has a significant impact on the triple global crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. We know, for example, that the built environment currently accounts for 31% of global material use, 15% of global freshwater use, 32% of energy demand, 21% of greenhouse gas emissions and 34% of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. These are just the biggest figures. However, we know that housing management or the way housing construction develops also affects broader aspects.

For example, land consumption and ecosystem fragmentation. If housing construction is not compact or if the existing housing stock is not used to its maximum potential, this further exacerbates the land consumption crisis we are seeing and has a serious impact on the ecosystem, namely biodiversity. As important as it is to work on housing production itself, it is equally important to work on the entire built environment and the morphology of cities, and on how urbanization is shaped, so that sustainability is ensured at the regional level as well."