Happy birthday COP! 🎂 It has been 30 years since the opening of COP1 in...

UN Climate Change 2 years ago

Happy birthday COP! 🎂 It has been 30 years since the opening of COP1 in Berlin. These United Nations Climate Conferences – or COPs  - convening nearly all countries of the world have achieved a huge amount since then. Milestone agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol at COP3 in 1997 and the Paris Agreement at COP21 in 2015 as well as other historic decisions at COPs over the years have strengthened the world’s commitment to confront the global climate crisis, and protect people everywhere. Just think – without these agreements, we would be headed for up to 5° Celsius of global heating, which most of humanity could not survive. We're now headed for around 3°C, which is still disastrous, and climate impacts hit countries, economies and people harder every year. So we need much more progress still. 2025 is a critical year for climate action: Under the Paris Agreement, all countries need to submit new, more ambitious national climate plans this year, showing how they will cut emissions more strongly and protect people, infrastructure, businesses and communities. As André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, President-Designate for #COP30 this November in Brazil, urged the world earlier this month: We need a global mutirão—a collective effort—against climate change and leave our differences behind. Every minute counts on the road to COP30.  Solidarity is the only way.

layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 1 hour ago



Wildfires destroying homes in the Midlands and Shropshire crews moving between fire and flood show why sustainable construction must now treat climate resilience as a core design requirement. Sustainable building design, low carbon design and eco-design for buildings need to account for overheating, fire risk, drainage capacity, defensible space and durable fabric performance.

Whole life carbon, embodied carbon and life cycle cost are becoming inseparable from safety, insurability and asset value, making whole life carbon assessment and lifecycle assessment essential tools for developers, councils and investors.

Karachi’s mangrove loss reinforces the construction value of green infrastructure and nature-based flood protection. Tidal creeks, mangrove belts and resilient coastal landscapes can reduce erosion, store carbon and protect communities, supporting environmental sustainability in construction without relying solely on hard engineering. For sustainable urban development, green construction and eco-friendly construction must prioritise site planning, biodiversity and building lifecycle performance alongside energy-efficient buildings and net zero carbon buildings.

Plans for a wind-turbine recycling facility in the Scottish Highlands point to a more mature circular economy in construction. Renewable infrastructure must address end-of-life reuse in construction, resource efficiency in construction and the embodied carbon in materials, especially composite blades and complex low carbon construction materials. The shift supports circular construction strategies, low embodied carbon materials and net zero whole life carbon targets, aligning with BREEAM, BREEAM v7 and wider expectations for environmental product declarations (EPDs). The strongest signal for decarbonising the built environment is clear: sustainable building practices must measure the carbon footprint of construction across design, use, maintenance and decommissioning.

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