Build More, Electrify Faster: Aligning Housing Abundance and Building Decarbonization
A light lunch for all guests will be served after the panel.
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.
Speakers: Heather Clark (Moderator), CEO Housing Multiplier Project · Aimee Witteman, Chief Impact Officer, ULI · Abigail Doerr, Managing Director, Metropolitan Abundance Project · Raghav Muralidharan, Manager, RMI · Paul Caine, Vice President, BB Holdings
This session is hosted by the Urban Land Institute, the Housing-Climate Project, Gehl, 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/.
By registering for this event, you agree to share your contact information with the organizers of Urban Climate Solution and co-hosting partner organization(s) for this session. This may include being added to mailing lists for future updates. You also agree that photos, video, and materials captured during the session may be used to document and promote the event and the organizers' work.