New Delhi: Construction and operation of buildings are responsible for 38 per cent of global emissions and there is an urgent need for solutions to help accelerate decarbonisation of the urban-built environment to limit the global temperature rise to below 1.5°C, the World Economic Forum said in a paper on Friday. The paper, produced in collaboration with Accenture, also noted that numerous technologies exist to help decarbonise the sector but there is an urgent need to accelerate investment to implement these solutions at scale in cities around the world.
The paper has proposed a more holistic decision-making approach, recognising the importance of social and environmental outcomes as well as system performance.
With over half of the world’s population living in cities and producing over 70 per cent of carbon emissions, cities play a key role in combatting climate change, the WEF said.
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It said some leaders in sustainable buildings have started to consider social and environmental impacts in their decision-making and many obstacles to investment in net-zero buildings still relate to financing, both real and perceived.
The WEF said its ‘Net-Zero Carbon Cities Building Value Framework’ seeks to accelerate investment by overcoming these barriers.
The paper also cited examples, including of the Belgian real estate company Extensa using complementary solar and geothermal technologies to renovate and refurbish an old railway station in Brussels.
In another case study from Turin, Italy, it said a municipality, in collaboration with leading smart energy service provider Enel X, retrofitted municipal buildings for energy efficiency and on-site renewable generation.
Geneva-based WEF, which describes itself as an international organisation promoting public-private cooperation, said the flexibility of its Building Value Framework means it can be used for the retrofit and refurbishment of existing buildings, as well as for the construction of new buildings.
The urgency to transition the world’s cities towards a net-zero carbon future is abundantly clear. The Building Value Framework presents an approach to help accelerate the investments needed to deliver a greener urban built environment, it added. If the world is to keep pace with limiting the global temperature rise to below 1.5ºC compared to pre-industrial levels, a transition to a clean electrified world is needed, the WEF said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
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