COP28 and the Path Ahead for Industry

COP28 professes to be a ‘milestone moment’, during which the world will take stock and analyse the progress that has been made on goals set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, in the wake of a year of extreme and record-breaking weather, there has been widespread frustration on the lack of global climate progress to date. Has the time come for individual businesses to take more control and play a greater role in steering the world towards a greener future?

COP28, the annual summit of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, commenced on November 30, 2023 for just under two weeks, located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 2023 is a particularly momentous year as it concludes the first global stocktake under the Paris Agreement, which is essentially a progress review to examine how the various countries’ efforts to reduce emissions are proceeding and to suggest where further changes can be made.

Ahead of the summit the UNEP released the Emissions Gap Report 2023: Broken Record – Temperatures hit new highs, yet world fails to cut emissions (again). This report assesses the gap between current greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the long-term goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

The exasperated tone of the report’s title reflects its fairly damning contents. GHG emissions reached a new record high in 2022, with CO2 emissions from industry and the combustion of fossil fuels account for two thirds of total. What’s more, the G20 nations – those best placed to be making inroads into their output – still account for 76% of global emissions, with China, India, Indonesia and the USA’s emissions all increasing when compared to the previous year.

Emissions of methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases are also rapidly increasing, this is despite a growing number of net zero pledges from governments around the world.

With such a disconnect between governmental pledges to decarbonise and real-world action, do businesses need to seize the reigns?

Let’s not to wait for governments to mandate decarbonisation through policy. Instead, maintaining people’s health, safety and well-being should be the factor that motivates industry to innovate and proactively set its own targets. We advocate for industry to move forward in cutting operational and embodied carbon emissions, improving energy efficiency and delivering sustainable, resilient homes.

The need for action has never been more pressing and the Emissions Gap Report stresses the importance of the next decade in creating momentum as we head towards the 2050 deadline for emissions targets.

“The built environment is a significant source of carbon emissions that needs to be addressed globally,” commented Julia Evans, CEO of BSRIA. “We have a suite of services that speak directly to the agenda of COP28 and the journey to net zero. We are an association that joins the dots between the methods used to heat and ventilate our homes and the factors affecting our internal environments. We can provide the tools and expertise to help you take an active role in reaching national and global net zero targets.”

Get in touch with our team to learn about the practical measures you can take in your home or business.

To read the report in full head to www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report2023.

This article appears on the BSRIA news and blog site as "COP28 and the Path Ahead for Industry" dated December 2023.

--BSRIA

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