North Norfolk MP Duncan Baker is set to propose a bill to the UK Parliament today that would make it mandatory to calculate and reduce the embodied carbon footprint of new buildings for the first time.
If passed into law, the Carbon Emissions (Buildings) Bill would require building regulations to be amended to limit the roughly 50 million tonnes of CO2 that are emitted from the materials and construction of buildings in the UK every year.
"That's more than aviation and shipping combined," Baker, a Conservative member of parliament (MP), wrote in a column for North Norfolk News.
Baker's bill hopes to expand on the government's strategy for reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, which was widely criticised for neglecting embodied carbon in favour of focusing on operational emissions from heating and powering buildings. "It strikes me that when we are decarbonising our electricity grid, ending our reliance on gas, phasing out coal ? why are we leaving ourselves with a big concrete and steel elephant in the room," Baker questioned.
"The construction industry is ready for it"
To address these emissions, he is proposing to make it a legal requirement for architects to "measure, report, and reduce" the embodied carbon emissions of major buildings projects.
If enacted, Backer said his bill could help the UK catch up to countries such as France, the Netherlands and the US, which are either moving to regulate embodied carbon or already have.
Dunc...