Green Watch, COP26 special issue

COP26 Special

Green Watch Working together for a better future

Welcome to Green Watch.

Each month, Environment and Sustainability Manager, Corrina Jones shares a round-up of stories and guidance on energy efficiency and sustainable practices.

In this issue: A special edition reflecting on the outcomes from COP26

About COP26 The COP26 event is a global united Nations summit about climate change and how countries are planning to tackle it. The world is warming because of emissions from fossil fuels causing extreme weather such as heatwaves and floods to intensify.

An agreement has been reached at COP26 - the Glasgow Climate Pact - but some leaders and campaigners have already said the measures in it do not go far enough.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries were asked to make changes to keep global warming below 2C and to try to aim for 1.5C - to prevent a climate disaster. The pact asks countries to republish their climate action plans, with more ambitious emissions reduction targets for 2030, by the end of next year.

The agreement is not legally binding and has been criticised for not going far enough but will set a global agenda on climate change for the next decade.

Other announcements include: China and US Cooperation: China and the US are two of the world’s biggest carbon emitters and the two countries have announced that they will work together to achieve the 1.5C temperature goal set out in the Paris Agreement.

Trees: Leaders from 100 countries have promised to stop deforestation by 2030. Trees absorb vast amounts of CO2 and stopping deforestation is vital to help stop climate change.

Methane: More than 100 countries have pledged to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030. Methane is more potent than CO2 and is responsible for 1/3 of global warming. Most of the gas comes from waste disposal and cattle. China, Russia and India haven’t joined the pact and are some of the biggest emitters of this gas.

Coal: Coal is the single biggest contributor to climate change. More than 40 countries have agreed to shift away from coal production. But some of the world's biggest coal-dependent countries, including China and the US, did not sign up.

Cars: On cars, over 30 countries and some of the world’s largest car makers committed to work together to make all new car sales zero emission globally by 2040, and by 2035 in leading markets, building on the UK’s commitment to end the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.

Money: Some 450 financial organisations, who between them control $130tn, agreed to back "clean" technology, such as renewable energy, and direct finance away from fossil fuel-burning industries. The initiative is an attempt to involve private companies in meeting net zero targets, and to commit them to providing finance for green technology.

Wales has joined a new global alliance of countries pledging to stop licensing oil and gas production to fight climate change. Within the UK, the Welsh government is going it alone with this!

Further reading: PM: Glasgow Climate Pact keeps critical 1.5C global warming goal alive - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) What is COP26 and what has been agreed at Glasgow climate conference? - BBC News Do the pledges made at COP26 go far enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees?

The short answer to that question is no ...

New analysis predicts that pledges to date do not go far enough and we are on course to see warming of 2.4 to 2.7 degrees by the end of the century according to the Climate Action Tracker (CAT).

It concludes that, in 2030, the greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet will still be twice as high as necessary for keeping temperature rise below 1.5C degree.

The projection comes as the UK's Met Office warns that a billion people could be affected by fatal heat and humidity if the global average temperature rises by 2C above pre-industrial levels.

Emissions and the built environment The world’s urban buildings, including homes, workplaces, schools and hospitals, are responsible for around 40% of global carbon emissions. By 2050, 1.6 billion people living in cities will be regularly exposed to extremely high temperatures and over 800 million people living in cities across the world will be vulnerable to sea level rises and coastal flooding.

Accelerating the transition to net zero emissions for the world’s cities will therefore be vital to achieving the goal of keeping global warming to close to 1.5 degrees. The UK is taking action to tackle emissions from the built environment sector. As heating for homes and workspaces makes up almost a third of all UK carbon emissions, reducing these emissions is key to achieving the goal of net zero by 2050.

Through the recent Heat and Buildings and Net Zero Strategies, the UK government has set out how the UK will deploy the low-carbon technology needed to decarbonise homes, workplaces and public spaces.

The Future Homes Standard will ensure all new homes from 2025 will be net zero ready. To address emissions from the wider built environment, the UK government is investing £3.9 billion through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, the Home Upgrade Grant scheme, Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Boiler Upgrade Scheme and Heat Network Transformation Programme.

Further reading: UK Funding to Support Developing Cities and Regions Transition to Net Zero by 2050 Business News Wales A net zero built environment sector by 2050 is achievable – but only with urgent government action including a nationwide retrofitting programme, the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has told world leaders at COP26.

More than 100 organisations led by UKGBC have published a Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap for the nation’s-built environment detailing the necessary actions they say government and industry must take to achieve net zero across the sector.

These include establishing a national programme of ’fabric first’ home retrofitting to aid the transition away from fossil fuel heating. It also calls for the cut-off date for the sale of gas and oil boilers to be brought forward to 2030, for EPC ratings to be reformed, for new government grants for low-income households and for VAT to be removed on energy efficient building works along with incentivising banks to offer low interest rate mortgage extensions for retrofitting loans to name but a few enablers.

Further reading: UKGBC-Whole-Life-CarbonRoadmap-A-Pathway-to-Net-Zero.pdf