With the UK experiencing exceptionally hot weather and the Met Office issuing its first ever extreme heat warning in July, climate change is on the nation’s lips. According to the World Meteorological Organisation, the global mean temperature in 2020 was the second warmest since records began[1] and extreme weather events are increasing in both frequency and severity.
Why is the year 2030 important?
The link between man-made greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change is undeniable. This week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its latest report, and the analysis is damning. Scientific predictions show that if we do not curb our emissions dramatically before 2030, we will become locked into severe (and potentially runaway) global warming, as feedback loops accelerate the pace of change and will make it impossible to keep global warming below 1.5°C.[2] This will result in devasting consequences outlined in the IPCC’s Special Report, including deaths, water and food shortages due to extreme hot weather, floods, rising sea levels, as well as biodiversity species loss and extinction.[3]
Based on the current global policy pledges (and taking the dip in emissions due to COVID-19 into account), modelling suggests that we are currently on course for a 3°C rise (if not more) in global temperature by the end of the century.[4] But we do not have the luxury of time to rectify this course; we are in a precarious global situation and therefore must suspend normal procedures as befits a state of emergency.
The role of the built environment
The built environment is responsible for 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions, almost half of that comes from energy used in buildings. As a response to this, we launched the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge. It’s an invitation to architects and the wider industry to shift towards outcome-based performance targets that are required to radically transform the built environment. If we are serious about attempting to limit global warming to 1.5°C in 2030 and beyond, then we must use our professional experience and expertise to deliver buildings that match this ambition.
The 2030 Climate Challenge provides a concise set of voluntary targets for energy use, embodied carbon from construction materials and water use; and they’re provided as means of stimulating debate as well as innovation, to encourage industry-wide participation to limit the impacts of new and major retrofit projects.
The 2030 Climate Challenge forms part of a suite of documents produced by the RIBA over the last two years which all share the same ambition: to drive up the performance quality of delivered projects for people and the planet through measurable, outcome orientated actions. The Sustainable Outcomes Guide and the Plan for Use Guide both take a step by step approach to embedding guidance within project programmes and are intrinsic strategies within the RIBA 2020 Plan of Work.
Our current approaches are unstainable, we can’t wait, we must act now to reduce our impacts. The 2030 Climate Challenge sets us on the path to work towards our net zero goals.
Join in and sign up to the 2030 Climate Challenge.
Find out more about our climate action work.
[1] State of the Global Climate 2020 (provisional report) https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=10444
[2] Sixth Assessment Report 2021 https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/
[3] Global Warming of 1.5°C 2018 https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/
[4] Emissions Gap Report 2020 https://www.unep.org/emissions-gap-report-2020
