Climate & emissions

Dramatic action will be needed by governments, cities and business if the global buildings and construction sector is to cut its carbon footprint in line with international agreements, according to a report released at COP24. The 2018 Global Status Report — “Towards a Zero-Emission, Efficient and Resilient Buildings and Construction Sector, from by the Global […]

The EU has set an objective of being a climate neutral economy by 2050. The strategy which it has taken to the COP24 climate talks in Poland shows how Europe can lead the way to climate neutrality by investing into realistic technological solutions, empowering citizens, and aligning action in key areas such as industrial policy, […]

As the COP24 climate summit convened in Katowice, Poland, the World Bank Group announced a doubling of its financial support for climate action to $200 billion. The funding is targeted at the 2021-2025 timeframe to enable countries to embark on more ambitious climate action programmes. The new finance will focus on: Cities: to help 100 cities […]

CEOs of 50 major global companies representing more than $1.5tr in revenue have urged world leaders to collaborate more closely with the private sector in order to rapidly speed up the transition towards a low carbon economy. Ahead of the UN Climate Summit in Poland, leading bosses are calling for more ambitious policy levers to […]

Nations must triple efforts to reach 2°C target, concludes the United Nation Environment Programme’s (UN Environment) annual review of global emissions, climate action. Indeed countries are failing to take the action needed to stave off the worst effects of climate change,  and the commitments made in the 2015 Paris agreement will not be met unless governments introduce additional […]

A rise in energy consumption in Europe, particularly in the transport sector is causing a slowdown in EU efforts to reach renewables and energy efficiency targets, says the European Environment Agency (EEA) in its latest report. The slowdown is putting at risk the European Union‘s ability to meet its 2020 and 2030 targets. Rising energy consumption, […]

The Electric Site project led byVolvo CE and its customer Skanska aims to electrify each transport stage in a quarry – from excavation to primary crushing, and transport to secondary crushing. After 10 weeks of testing results show that their Electric Site research project has achieved results including a 98% reduction in carbon emissions, a […]

A timber and mud-brick ‘Children Village’ in Brazil, which doesn’t need air-con even in 45 degree heat has won the Royal Institute of British Architects prize for the best building in the world. It is an unlikely accolade to find bestowed on a remote school the “Children Village”, in a far-flung part of Brazil. , designed […]

In the run-up to December’s COP24 climate conference in Poland, ministers from ten EU countries have urged the EU to chart a “credible and detailed” path towards net-zero emissions in 2050. Energy and environment ministers from Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden have co-signed a joint letter to EU Commissioner Miguel […]

A US study shows that green construction methods increase a building’s value by 4%. The World Green Building Trends 2016 SmartMarket Report (Dodge Data & Analytics’  ) found that leading green building contractors are implementing sustainable practices across their projects and company culture which not only minimize their environmental impact but also to attain competitive advantage […]

The EU has agreed a legal framework for “citizen energy communities”. Groups of individual consumers can thus generate energy for home use and pool surplus energy for sale to the national grid. The deal should be a boost for small-scale renewable energy production. There are currently around 3,000 energy communities across Europe, according to REScoop.eu, the […]

A groundbreaking model for building codes helps cities save money, protect resources and increase resilience and safety worldwide and has been developed  by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), International Code Council, ASHRAE and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES). The 2018 International Green Construction Code (2018-IgCC) is a model code that has wide applicability for incorporating resilient, high-performance green building strategies into building […]