Carbon Footprint Study of a Zero Energy Consumption Building
Abstract
Nowdays, our society must deal with two main issues for this century: the progressive exhaustion of fossil fuels (carbon, oil, gas and coal), which provides currently more than 80% of the primary energies marketed in the world and the climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions are considered to be the main reason of the climatic warming for the last fifty years and a progressive concern about this matter has been observed. In a report realized by the ,,European Commission for Energy,, the major issues of EU citizens is the energy security which was translated by "shortages of fossil fuel supplies compared to increasing world demand", "high fossil fuel prices", "supplier or transit countries using their positions to exert political pressure" , "inadequate energy efficiency measures in Europe" or "impact of EU climate strategy" (EU Report 2008). Energy is essential for socio-economic progress both in developing and industrialized countries and the demand for energy will increase with the global population, currently growing at a rate of 250,000 people per day (Elani et al, 1996). In the year 2001, the use of fossil fuels released about 23.7 Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere with a continuous increase compared to previous periods (International Energy Agency, 2004).