The authors of a RIBA report showing how construction can reduce its carbon emissions have urged people in the sector to endorse their findings to help pressure governments into taking action ahead of the COP26 climate conference.
"The more endorsements we can get, the more powerful that message is," said Maria Smith, editor of the Built for the Environment report published by the Royal Institute of British Architects and climate action group Architects Declare.
"We need people to go onto the website, sign up and endorse the report so that when it goes to government, it has thousands of signatures," added architect Andrew Waugh, who contributed to the report.
Top: a timber school called Feldballe by Henning Larsen is a case study in the report (above) Waugh, who is a member of the Architects Declare steering group and co-founder of timber-construction specialist Waugh Thistleton Architects, said that governments are lagging behind the sector when it comes to decarbonising the built environment.
November's COP26 climate summit will be the first to recognise the built environment's huge contribution to global warming, with an estimated 40 per cent of global emissions coming from buildings and infrastructure.
Sector's climate aims "desperately need the support of government"
The summit will for the first time feature a Cities, Regions & Built Environment Day at which ideas for reducing these emissions will be discussed.
But Waugh said that gov...