Barriers to achieving net zero sustainability target for Edinburgh City: private property owners’ perspective

Ikediashi, Dubem; Walker, Claire; Jaradat, Suha

Abstract

The recent successes made at the 28th Conference of Parties (COP) held in Dubai is a testament that governments globally are committed to combating climate change. United Kingdom is no different and its various devolved powers have made carbon reduction commitments, with Scotland committing to achieving net-zero by 2045.Although the specifics of this target are unclear, Edinburgh the capital of Scotland’s ambition of leading the way with a 2030 target faces the unique challenge of balancing between its prestigious world heritage status and forging the way forward with carbon emissions. This paper explores the challenges faced in meeting this net zero target from the perspective of property owners within the city. Anchored on quantitative research design, the paper uses structured questionnaire survey to solicit responses from 178 selected private property owners within the city. A total of 101 valid responses were retrieved to give a response rate of 57%. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the barriers. Findings indicate that “knowledge deficiency regarding the end results in terms of energy efficiencies”, “disruption caused by home adaptations during installation”, the attendant cost of the net zero technologies and resources, “difficulty in finding impartial advice”, “complicated decision-making process when making modifications for listed buildings, conservation zones, and UNESCO sites”, and “lack of clarity over who is delivering climate change targets for the various districts of Edinburgh city” were the top rated barriers in each of the 6 categories. The paper among others, concludes that although there is awareness of Scotland’s target to achieve net-zero by 2045 (UK’s countrywide target is 2050), the more ambitious target being pursued by the Edinburgh City Council is not widely understood. Consequently, confidence levels around this knowledge are low, and knowledge on how to act and make the changes is low, suggesting there will be limited progress without knowledge sharing and empowering programmes. The paper therefore recommends among others, that project communication plans should be adopted to ensure that private property owners are fully engaged as stakeholders and contributors to the net zero target project.

Citation

Ikediashi, D., Walker, C., & Jaradat, S. (2024, September). Barriers to achieving net zero sustainability target for Edinburgh City: private property owners’ perspective. Presented at The Fourteenth International Conference on Construction in the 21st Century (CITC-14), Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: The Fourteenth International Conference on Construction in the 21st Century (CITC-14)
• Start Date: Sep 2, 2024
• End Date: Sep 5, 2024
• Acceptance Date: Apr 4, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Feb 1, 2025
• Publication Date: 2025
• Deposit Date: Jan 23, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: Proceedings of the Construction in the 21st Century 14th International Conference (CITC 14)
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/4059136
• Publisher URL: https://www.citcglobal.com/_files/ugd/0d72f4_ff3ed95daae649fb83edb6b849a060cf.pdf