Towards climate resilient and energy-efficient buildings: A sensitivity analysis on building components and cooling strategies

Climate change is a major global challenge with significant impacts that have been studied across various research fields. The building sector, being a major contributor to global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, plays a crucial role in climate change. However, buildings not only contribute to climate change but are also negatively impacted by it due to their long lifespans. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of building energy performance and thermal comfort within the context of climate change, focusing on long-term assessment at a regional scale and examining the effectiveness of resilient cooling solutions. Besides, it employs a global sensitivity analysis to explore the impact of building types and retrofit conditions on energy performance and thermal comfort, enabling the tailoring of regional approaches accordingly. The study focuses on a representative building in Rome, Italy, before and after energy-efficient refurbishment across three periods: 2010s, 2050s, and 2090s. Findings indicate a significant increase (up to 55 %) in the annual thermal energy need for cooling and a substantial rise (up to 155 %) in the risk of overheating. Mechanical ventilative cooling and ultraselective double-glazed windows emerge as impactful solutions, mitigating climate change effects. Combining these solutions could help to keep the trade-offs of energy efficiency. Results also demonstrate the crucial contribution of retrofit measures and building typology to buildings’ climate resilience. After refurbishment, the cooling solutions become more effective. Energy-efficient buildings with adequate ventilation show greater resilience to climate change compared to non-retrofitted buildings.