Against a backdrop of economic crises, natural disasters and ongoing geopolitical conflict, the twenty-eighth iteration of the annual UN Climate Summit – COP28, this year hosted by the UAE, commenced in Dubai last week. Although what’s going on in Dubai may seem worlds away as I sit musing at my desk in London, the topics and discussions from this week are still highly relevant to what’s happening on the ground in the development industry. This blog seeks to cut through the media hype to provide an overview of the likely implications of this week’s discussions on progress, or lack thereof, and what this means for our industry.
The headline outcome from last year’s conference (COP27) was the establishment of a ‘Loss and Damage Fund’, the culmination of decades of pressure from climate-vulnerable developing countries. The fund aims to provide financial assistance to those nations most vulnerable and impacted by the effects of climate change. Whilst discussions on the fund this past year have been anything but smooth, with disagreements about who should fund it and who the recipients should be, progress was made on day one of COP28 in Dubai, with negotiators rubber-stamping plans to get the fund up and running. Initial pledges were made by a handful of countries, who promised contributions to the start-up phase of the fund. Germany and COP28 hosts the UEA committed $100 million each, followed by the United Kingdom (£40m or $50.5m), the United States ($17.5m) and Japan ($10m).
The UK’s sizeable pledge to the fund stands in striking contrast with the media reporting in the lead-up to this year’s summit, which has seen the UK plagued with accusations of “rowing back” on its green commitments. Most notably, criticism arose following Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement of a major U-turn on the government’s climate commitments, by pushing back the deadline for selling new petrol and diesel cars, as well as a delay to the phasing out of gas boilers and plans to ensure landlords gained an EPC of grade C or higher for rental properties.
The PM reiterated his commitment to net zero on the first day of COP28, and announced last Friday, the government’s intentions to allocate a further £888m for new green funding, taking the total package to £1.6bn. The PM also unveiled that a new investment partnership between RWE and Abu Dhabi’s energy company Masdar had been agreed, resulting in around £11bn invested into the
Dogger Bank, the world’s largest offshore windfarm, located off the coast of Yorkshire. Once completed, Dogger Bank is set to provide a huge boost to UK renewables, creating more jobs, helping to power three million homes and increasing our energy security. Deployment of renewable energy has been an important topic this year and Tuesday’s (5 December) events were dedicated solely to ‘Energy and Industry’. Other key matters discussed in this session included how to improve energy efficiency, innovation and action for heavy-emitting sectors (including steel, cement, and aluminium), unlocking the potential of hydrogen and decarbonisation of oil and gas supplies.
Sustainability in the built environment is also firmly on the climate agenda, with a whole day yesterday (Wednesday 6 December) dedicated to Urbanisation and the Built Environment. This is unsurprising, given the built environment is responsible for almost 40% of energy related CO2 emissions, and its operational emissions actually
grew year on year from 2015 to 2021 by an average of 1%. The day saw delegates focussing on how to address carbon emissions from buildings and demonstrating how the built environment (and the built environment industry) can form part of the climate solution. This is ever pressing given the resilience of our global building stock is insufficient to cope with the impacts of climate change, which in turn exacerbates the financial risk of inaction and assets which are no longer fit for purpose.
In the lead up to this year’s event, there have been renewed calls for a clearer definition of net zero buildings and an internationally agreed certification/verification system. Despite UN goals for all buildings completed after 2030 to be net zero in operation, a new report from the
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and Arup sets out the challenges associated with this, particularly that there is no single national policy requiring buildings to produce net zero emissions now or in the future.
The Buildings Breakthrough target was established at COP26 in November 2021, aiming to ensure near-zero emission and resilient buildings are the new normal by 2030. In an attempt to establish an enabling policy environment, Buildings Breakthrough seeks to aid Green Building Councils in accelerating their climate action to continue delivering the goals of the breakthrough. Certain industry bodies have made their own progress with this - the WorldGBC published their NZC Buildings Commitment, which requires signatories to tackle operational and embodied carbon emissions from the building and construction sector. This is definitely a step in the right direction, but as we are all aware, the climate crisis is a problem that needs solving through action. At present, there doesn’t seem to be any clarity as to how this platform will be used for collaboration between the various national governments and to support the establishment of consistent definitions of what a net-zero building is.
So how do global discussions in Dubai relate to what’s happening in the development industry? It can be challenging to sort through the various media coverage of COP28, and the discussions of issues on a global scale, to determine how this might impact the developments we work on. What the Buildings Breakthrough initiative does tell us is that there is a pressing need for the accelerated transformation of the built environment sector, establishing our buildings as a critical lever for climate mitigation and adaptation.
On the ground in the UK, the UKGBC has developed the first
Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard, due to be published in 2024. It brings together net-zero carbon requirements for all major building types, based on a 1.5°C trajectory. This standard is championed by leading industry organisations and will provide a much-needed benchmark standard for decarbonising the built environment, applying a single methodology for net zero to new and existing buildings. As we’ve seen happen with the BREEAM Standard, there is the potential for the NZC Buildings Standards to be incorporated into planning policy, and require development proposals to address the drive to reduce emissions and deliver more sustainable development outcomes. This would also help achieve a clearer policy-based definition of net-zero buildings, as called-for by the WBCSD and Arup.
At present however, it’s consistent messaging on net-zero across the industry that we’re still lacking, as well as alignment of planning policy (the NPPF) with net-zero and adaptation. Here at Lichfields, we’re certainly giving a great deal of thought as to what’s going on in Dubai, and how these net-zero discussions at a global level can be related down to our clients on site by site basis.
