FRONT DESK / ANALYSIS
CO P26 O UTCO M E S
COP26 – what next? By Herpreet Kaur Grewal
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OP26 may be behind us, but what are the outcomes of the event? Last year’s conference stood out for having a Cities, Regions & Built Environment Day, the first time this had happened at the global UN event. On one panel during this day, delegates heard that the built environment industry has not been going “far or fast enough” on tackling climate change. Cristina Gamboa, CEO of the World Green Building Council, said the buildings and construction sector and cities “must be elevated as a critical solution provider to the climate emergency”. Although it was far from perfect, the final deal of the entire event made small steps in the right direction. But in his post-event press conference, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he was “tinged with disappointment” that an overall better deal could not be agreed upon by nations. He added that although “it’s tempting to be cynical” and “dismiss these types of such summits as a series of talking shops” he insisted that “we came to COP with a call for real action on coal, cars, cash and trees and that’s exactly what we’ve got”. Among the small but welcome pledges in the pact was the first mention of fossil fuels in the text of a COP agreement. The agreement said nations must accelerate towards “the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”. For the built environment this means changing many aspects of how it is run.
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Gamboa had told delegates: “By 2050, 68 per cent of the world’s population will be living in urban areas. Cities, regions and the built environment within them are critical for climate action. The built environment is responsible for almost 40 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The built environment sector is a strategic sector to simultaneously address the global challenges of various global changes such as climate change, improving living conditions, the economic crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic and the necessary resilience we need to build in our regions and cities. We aim to spotlight local and
regional leadership as a vital policy enabler for action on buildings and construction, waste and consumption, circular economy and the creation of green jobs.” The “phasedown” of fossil fuels will affect all elements of the built environment. One of the ways to meet targets will be for building owners and operators to make use of sophisticated technology. Jamie Cameron, director of digital solutions at Johnson Controls UK&I, said: “About 40 per cent of global carbon emissions and 50 per cent of extracted materials comes from the buildings we use every day.” He added: “Thankfully, technologies already exist that
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