Elementary School entrance | courtesy HOK
COP28 Report from Anica Landreneau:
In the days leading up to COP28, host city Dubai experienced unprecedented rainfall and flooding that foreshadowed the urgency of this year’s UN climate summit. In a city that averages 0.1 inches of rain in November, people could be seen paddling boats through the streets. This ominous launch to COP28 echoed a similar wet welcome for COP26 in Glasgow two years ago.
The planet is speaking in ALL CAPS. Are we listening?
As the UN’s recent Emissions Gap Report 2023: Broken Record laid bare, the world is barreling towards a temperature rise well above the Paris target of 1.5oC. Current commitments (Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs) under the Paris Agreement still put the planet on a path to warm by 2.5-2.9oC unless members nations significantly reduce emissions beyond Paris targets.
Recent events and future forecasts should both heighten the urgency around climate action and accelerate emissions reduction targets. It’s important to remember this isn’t just a carbon issue. We’re also acting to keep the planet safely habitable for our species. The safety, wellbeing and prosperity of all human life should be included in the equation.
Just transition ensures the whole of society has the resources and means to pivot to a net-zero future. To achieve a just transition, we must consider a number of factors including:
Fuel: Energy transition, such as the move from natural gas to electrification, must be structured to address the utility burden for lower-income members of our communities. Fuel or home heating subsidies should transition along with fuel sources. We can’t leave the most vulnerable and least financially capable members of our communities to shoulder the costs of stranded assets and aging fossil fuel infrastructure.
Circularity and renewable energy: Investments in renewable energy and energy storage must include provisions for circularity to avoid the creation of orphan waste (especially from heavy metals like lithium) that too often ends up in landfills or incinerated and are frequently harvested under hazardous conditions in developing countries.
Codes and regulations: Building policies, including benchmarking and performance-standards, should emphasize energy audits, retro-commissioning and weatherization. This approach comes with multiple additional benefits such as load reduction, improved thermal comfort and indoor air quality, resiliency and local job creation. Incentives are too often tied to quick-fix component or equipment replacement without addressing underlying living conditions, health, habitability or community economic stability.
Material sourcing: Materials also should be sourced to prioritize fair labor practices along with decarbonization (e.g. Design for Freedom, Responsible Steel) so our beneficial environmental action is not negated by harmful social impact.
Build less, build local: We won’t truly achieve a resilient, net-zero built environment until we start doing more with less. That means leveraging more passive solutions, deploying green infrastructure, designing with more reductive (rather than additive) solutions, investing heavily in our existing building stock, and celebrating the inherent genius of indigenous architecture (place-based and low-carbon) and biomimetic design (informed by nature’s solutions).
The climate and planet are changing rapidly around us. Effective and enduring climate action requires radical change and just transition.
Anica Landreneau, Director of Sustainable Design for global architecture, planning and design firm HOK.