The world struck a new climate deal at the COP30 summit in Brazil, which calls...

CNN Climate 10 hours ago

The world struck a new climate deal at the COP30 summit in Brazil, which calls for a tripling of funding to help countries adapt to increasingly severe climate impacts. But countries failed to agree to a roadmap away from fossil fuels, after entrenched divisions threatened to collapse the talks. The agreement came after more than two weeks of increasingly fraught negotiations between representatives of more than 190 countries in the port city of Belém, known as the gateway to the Amazon. The final text contained no mention of fossil fuels — the drivers of the climate crisis — signaling a retreat from consensus agreements only two years old. It included only a general agreement on deforestation, rather than more explicit commitments, which had been another key issue in the negotiations. More than 80 countries supported the concept of a "roadmap" to transition away from fossil fuels, building on a commitment made at COP28 in Dubai in 2023. However, intense opposition from petrostates and heavy users of fossil fuels prevented consensus. Read more at the link in @cnn's bio. 📷: Adriano Machado/Reuters

layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 9 hours ago



Global policy discussions at COP30 have reignited momentum for decarbonising the built environment through targeted strategies addressing both operational and embodied carbon. The summit’s commitment to sustainable cooling reflects a growing emphasis on low carbon design and sustainable building design as essential components of environmental sustainability in construction. Integrating passive cooling and energy-efficient buildings into urban developments aligns with whole life carbon thinking and lifecycle assessment principles, reinforcing the need for a comprehensive whole life carbon assessment across infrastructure projects.

Attention to the carbon footprint of construction has expanded to include embodied carbon in materials, renewable building materials, and low embodied carbon materials that can lower lifecycle costs and improve building lifecycle performance. The UK’s renewed push for a large-scale retrofit programme under the Warm Homes Plan signals a major opportunity for low carbon building upgrades, circular economy in construction initiatives, and resource efficiency in construction.

Deep renovation of the housing stock can accelerate progress toward net zero carbon buildings and net zero whole life carbon outcomes through sustainable building practices, eco-design for buildings, and the use of green building materials verified through environmental product declarations (EPDs). Emerging international frameworks support equitable decarbonisation, highlighting the importance of circular construction strategies and end-of-life reuse in construction to extend material lifespans and minimise the environmental impact of construction.

The shift promotes sustainable material specification, the adoption of BREEAM and BREEAM v7 standards, and life cycle thinking in construction as benchmarks for green construction and sustainable architecture. The scientific reassessment of soil carbon sequestration underscores the role of natural systems in supporting carbon neutral construction and sustainable urban development. Together, these advances form the foundation of a circular economy approach capable of decarbonising the built environment and achieving measurable carbon footprint reduction across all stages of construction.

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