United in Science 2024

United Nations 2 years ago

The science is clear – the world is far off track from achieving global climate goals, threatening a sustainable future for all. The impacts of climate change and hazardous weather are reversing development gains and threatening the well-being of people and the planet, according to a new multi-agency report coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).  Greenhouse gas concentrations are at record levels, fuelling temperature increase into the future.  The emissions gap between aspiration and reality remains high. Under current policies, there is a two thirds likelihood of global warming of up to 3 °C this century, says the United in Science report. Human-caused climate change has resulted in widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere. The year 2023 was the warmest on record by a large margin, with widespread extreme weather. This trend continued in the first half of 2024.  The United in Science offers much-needed grounds for hope. It explores how advances in natural and social sciences, new technologies and innovation enhance our understanding of the Earth system and could be game changers for climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and sustainable development.  International collaboration, comprehensive governance frameworks for integrated observing systems and innovative financing models are needed.
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layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 1 hour ago



Social housing is becoming the proving ground for sustainable construction, with Octopus Energy’s Tenant Power tariff addressing the split incentive that has long blocked retrofit investment. Clearer returns for landlords should accelerate energy-efficient buildings, sustainable building design, sustainable design and eco-design for buildings, placing whole life carbon, net zero whole life carbon, embodied carbon, embodied carbon in materials, whole life carbon assessment, lifecycle assessment, life cycle thinking in construction and life cycle cost at the centre of decision-making. Procurement frameworks are set to move the market beyond pilot projects by aggregating demand, shortening delivery times and giving supply chains the certainty needed to scale net zero carbon buildings and low carbon building programmes. That shift supports environmental sustainability in construction through low carbon design, low carbon construction materials, low embodied carbon materials, renewable building materials, sustainable material specification, environmental product declarations (EPDs), resource efficiency in construction and circular economy in construction, including end-of-life reuse in construction. For teams working to BREEAM and BREEAM v7, the priority is measurable building lifecycle performance, carbon footprint reduction and a lower carbon footprint of construction across greener, more investable retrofit programmes.

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