Energy and Carbon

We’re still relying on fossil fuels to power our communities, industry and transport. This, alongside emissions from industrial processes, deforestation, and agriculture has led to a rise in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and global temperature over the past 200 years. And it is accelerating. The consequence is climate breakdown: more frequent and intense storms that lead to flooding, droughts that cause heatwaves and wildfires, and rises in sea levels that cause devastating losses for people and nature across the world; delay in action will result in an increasingly uninhabitable world. 

In order to avoid damaging impacts, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC) has encouraged efforts to restrict the average rise in global temperature to no more than 1.5°C (or 2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels. Reaching this is a truly global challenge, one that all countries, organisations and individuals must participate in. 

Since buildings account for about 30% of US GHG emissions, the Department of Energy led the development of a Blueprint for decarbonizing U.S. buildings by 2050 to lay out a national strategy for aggressively reducing building greenhouse gas emissions while delivering equity, affordability, and resilience benefits to communities.  

By transitioning to renewable energy and reorganising the way we design, build, and maintain buildings and infrastructure, we will not only reduce costs and inefficiencies, but create a more sustainable world for future generations. Everyone and every organisation has a role to play and should reap the business benefits of a low carbon world.