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I'm pretty sure we're going to use wood fibre panels, which ... sequester carbon.
Only if you bury them at the end of their life right?
frankenbike-
I mean, PIR is just going to be buried too. At best.
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When the construction industry talk about wood fibre insulation sequestering carbon it's talking about for it's lifetime, which is not unfair because there's nothing in the word sequester which implies permanence ;)
FWIW at least some wood fibre insulation (e.g. Gutex) can be recycled and it's typically carbon negative because more carbon is stored in it than is used in its production.
The ideal wood fibre insulation would be highly recyclable and have low amounts of energy used during its production, but in reality you have to choose between wet processed and dry processed boards. Wet contain few additives/glues so are better for recycling, dry are mixed with a PU based glue, so much less energy is used to make them (which makes them cheaper) but I imagine they're much less recyclable. Their capillarity isn't as good because of the glue too.
Of course if you compare wood fibre with conventional insulation, polystyrene can't be recycled, glass wool involves heating glass to 1,450 °C (and is the devil's work IMO anyway), mineral wool up to 1600 °C - that's a lot of energy - and both have very real potential health risks.
NotThamesWater
Fox
No because the panels can (and IMO should, for as building with solid walls) be breathable.
I'm pretty sure we're going to use wood fibre panels, which tick all the boxes of being breathable, hygroscopic and have good capillarity, but also sequester carbon.
If you then do render them you need a breathable render, like lime, but as we're cladding our place with viroc cement boards, my current understanding is that we shouldn't need to render.