Conflicted about building decarbonization: Contested climate justice imaginaries in expert visions of low-carbon and net-zero buildings

What expert driven imaginaries are emerging around net-zero infrastructure and the decarbonization of buildings? Based on 60 original expert interviews conducted in the United States, this study examines how climate justice considerations shape sociotechnical imaginaries of building decarbonization. The study identifies six distinct imaginaries, three positive: “A critical pathway to net-zero climate resiliency,” “Achieving racial, housing and health justice,” and “An engine for jobs and community growth;” and three negative: “A gentrified nightmare for disadvantaged groups,” “Expensive buildings and unhealthy polluted cities,” and “A corrupt boondoggle doomed to fail.” The study then analyzes these imaginaries according to Watkin's framework of places, spaces, and transformation, as well as contestation, paradox, and professional identity. Imaginaries shape not only the life trajectories of buildings and technologies within them, but distinct visions of risk and benefit, public good, equity and justice. Moreover, imaginaries can help target assessment of what people want or fear from climate action and help direct cities toward visions of the just city that are coupled with the social, material, cultural, and symbolic aspects of their city, rather than only standardized indicators remotely detached from the desires of residents. These findings are put into context with “agonistic policy spaces,” justice paradoxes, and insights for urban governance. • Uses rich empirical data to identify six distinct imaginaries about building decarbonization. • Explores sub-national imaginaries rather than top-down national visions, highly relevant for urban climate governance. • Uses Watkins' spatial imaginaries framework and sociotechnical imaginaries theory. • Discusses “agonistic policy spaces” and justice paradoxes.