Build More, Electrify Faster: Aligning Housing Abundance and Building Decarbonization

The housing affordability and climate crises are often addressed through separate — and sometimes competing — policy agendas. Housing advocates seek faster approvals, lower construction costs, and fewer barriers to infill development. Building decarbonization advocates seek to prevent decades of additional fossil-fuel dependence by advancing all-electric construction, stronger performance standards, and cleaner energy systems. But housing production and decarbonization do not have to be opposing goals. Well-designed infill housing can reduce transportation emissions, lower household energy costs, improve indoor air quality, and protect residents from extreme heat and wildfire smoke. Poorly designed or poorly sequenced requirements, however, can add cost, delay projects, strain electrical infrastructure, or disproportionately affect affordable and smaller-scale development. This session will examine where housing and decarbonization strategies reinforce one another, where genuine implementation tensions arise, and how policymakers, developers, advocates, utilities, and funders can resolve them. Panelists will explore practical approaches to codes, incentives, permitting, utility coordination, affordability protections, and policy sequencing that allow communities to build more housing without locking in long-term emissions or future retrofit costs. The session will conclude with a set of principles for advancing housing abundance, affordability, electrification, and climate resilience together. This session is hosted by the Urban Land Institute, the Housing-Climate Project, the Parking Reform Network, and WRI and is a part of The Urban Climate Solution track at NYC Climate Week 2026. View all events in the track at https://www.urbanclimatesolution.org/.