Written By:
John Jackson
Industry Editor
This November world leaders meet in Glasgow for COP26 the UN Climate Change Conference, this in a year when the world has recorded its highest temperatures on record and countries including Canada, the USA, Germany, Belgium, Greece and Turkey have all experienced extreme weather related events. With this in mind you’d like to think this conference will be the one that delivers a globally supported action plan to ensure the measures that need to be taken to effectively combat climate change are put in place. Or, and putting it bluntly, will simply add more hot air to an already overheating planet? We’ll only know the answer to this after the conference, although irrespective of its outcome the need for us all to make the changes that are needed to become a net zero carbon nation will become increasingly imperative.
Considering the strength of evidence around the impact of climate change, including the recently published report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) talking about the benefits of decarbonisation should be unnecessary. Surely the Report’s findings alone should be enough to spur us all into action? These findings include highlighting how: “Global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least the mid-century under all emissions scenarios considered. Global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades”.
We’re living in those “coming decades” right now and in this respect it's down to all of us to implement those deep reductions in carbon dioxide. Yet protecting our planet for future generations doesn’t seem to be a strong enough benefit. Yes, increasing numbers of people are doing more to adopt a way of living that reduces their carbon footprint, but is it a sufficient number? Is the pace quick enough? Are the changes significant enough? I suspect not, and with the business community in many respects it's still all too much like business as usual, with maybe a few “green” tweaks around the edges. Of course there are exceptions and an increasing number of businesses are becoming more a part of the solution rather than the problem, but we have to ask is this happening quickly enough to truly combat climate change?
In the workplace spreadsheets show what can and can’t be achieved, they guide actions and decisions, and for a business person they are essential to the running of a business. They can even offer comfort and reassurance, to confirm that you’ve done what you can to help the environment based on what the numbers allow. However, unfortunately the climate doesn’t react to our spreadsheets, it reacts to our actions and as our actions are harming our climate even though from a business perspective it may seem like we are doing the right thing, from an environmental perspective we can still be contributing to the problem.
To effectively decarbonise there is a need to reframe our thinking, and that has to mean in both our personal and professional lives. It means putting the environment at the top of the agenda. This will inevitably mean significant changes have to be made across all aspects of our lives. At the moment it's still possible to carry on almost as normal, and it's tempting to do so. After all, simply running a business is time consuming enough, let alone having to find the time to realign a business for it to become as green as possible. Equally, many people really like their lifestyles and although concerned about the environment may not feel ready or willing even to embrace adopting a sustainable lifestyle. This should be a concern as the last thing we should want is to wait for a tipping point to be passed or for any of our communities to be descameted by an extreme climate event.
The warning signs are here and they are getting louder, if we want our built environment to continue to provide us with an effective framework to live in, they need to be acted on now. Wales is a small country with a small population and I’ve heard it suggested that our efforts won’t make a difference compared to the other bigger nations. We should robustly challenge this thinking for a number of reasons, firstly every country across the planet has to decarbonise – there can not be any exceptions. This of course is out of our control and it's something that world leaders absolutely have to collectively commit to. However the more countries large or small that commit to and achieve decarbonisation the more difficult it will become for other countries to continue harming our planet. Secondly, Wales can derive economic benefits from decarbonisation, provided we become very good at it. This is an opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills, technology and products that will be needed across the world to implement the transition to become net-zero carbon nations.
It’s impossible to compare these commercial benefits with the ultimate benefit of decarbonisation, and that’s the one where we get to protect our planet and secure its future for generations to come. There is a huge amount of work that needs to be undertaken to achieve this. Even ahead of the COP26 conference we should start making the far deeper changes to how we live and go about business that are needed to effectively combat climate change.
