As mandated in the 2021 Climate Law and the state’s Clean Energy Climate Plan, the Massachusetts residential sector must achieve a 95% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions below 1990 levels by the year 2050 and a 50% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030. In order to meet this target, housing units will need to be built or retrofitted to the highest energy efficiency standards, while phasing out fossil-fuel powered systems and equipment (electrification) and deploying renewable energy at scale (greening the grid).
Massachusetts has 3.05 million existing housing units, of which, a substantial number of older housing units that lack adequate insulation and do not use clean energy sources for heating, hot water, cooking, or other needs. Approximately 22% of occupied housing units rely on oil heating systems, 51% rely on natural gas, and 20% use electricity for home heating. Further, roughly 80% of the buildings that will exist in 2050 have already been built, making retrofits essential to meeting net zero emissions limits. While there is a feasible pathway for decarbonizing newly built housing, retrofitting existing buildings is often more complicated and costly.
As stated in the Commonwealth’s 2023 and 2024 Climate Report Cards and the report from the Commission on Clean Heat it is critical that the Commonwealth rapidly scale up decarbonization efforts within the residential and commercial building sectors. The report alludes to the need to coordinate actions across multiple fronts including investments in affordable housing and low-to-moderate income communities as well as coordinated utility planning and urban development. The acceleration of decarbonization was central to the funding provided in the Affordable Homes Act, which provided funds for decarbonizing state-aided public housing that serves some of the most vulnerable residents and reauthorized the Climate Ready Housing program that provides funds for retrofitting privately owned affordable housing. The new 2025-27 Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) further prioritizes the state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity to prioritize decarbonization by requiring, at minimum, stretch code building energy performance standards for all funded projects and also Enterprise Green Communities Certification. The QAP priorities for decarbonization, per the Affordable Homes Act, will also be reflected in state capital grant making for affordable housing production and preservation. Additionally, EOHLC remains committed to working with partners at MassHousing in making key investments through the Climate Bank to increase the supply of decarbonized affordable homes.
The 2025-2027 Mass Save Plan also makes significant, increased financial incentives and technical assistance available for building decarbonization, with specific targets for equity and a focus on supporting low- and moderate-income households. EEA has conducted an analysis and is advancing recommendations to further streamline and enhance resources for building decarbonization. Recent successes [KG1] suggest that under the right circumstances and when paired with effective agency coordination, sound program design, and adequate funding, decarbonization and affordable housing goals can be mutually reinforced. In order reach toward our goals of creating more sustainable housing it is critical that we match our continued investments with new innovative construction models that build more efficiently and sustainably across all housing development including but not limited to building on the ‘thermal code’ approach of the Stretch and Specialized energy Codes from the Department of Energy Resources and an exploration of modular development and offsite construction strategies. The energy codes that updated in 2023/2024 are an example; the shift in these codes to reduce heating and cooling loads (with policies like Passivehouse and TEDI) will reduce total cost-of-ownership through lower energy costs but also result in a x5 reduction in the ratepayer impact of future electric grid investments.