Despite media headlines about challenging negotiations, diplomatic spats, negotiators withdrawing from talks, and claims of back-room fossil fuel deals, COP29 still produced plenty of reasons for optimism, writes Amanda Williams, who attended the event in Baku in her capacity of Head of Environmental Sustainability at The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB).
Head of Environmental Sustainability at The Chartered Institute of Building Amanda Williams
Away from the much-documented fraught international negotiations, the built environment was a hot topic at COP29, and it was clear progress must be accelerated – with less than 1 per cent of buildings meeting net zero carbon standards, globally.
There was no shortage of events with a focus on the built environment with a High-Level Ministerial Roundtable on Green Construction, Energy Efficiency in Buildings, and Climate Resilience in Cities being the flagship event on Urbanisation, Transport and Tourism thematic day.
There was also a full programme of events in the Buildings & Cooling Pavillion and other side events in the Green Zone where I was pleased to see the issue of embodied carbon and materials coming up repeatedly as this is a subject we, at CIOB, believe must be addressed if the construction sector is to accurately measure its environmental impact.
An event in the Buildings Pavillion on the tools and solutions for addressing whole-life carbon was particularly inspiring and highlighted some great examples of innovation.
The Australia pavilion hosted two events with built environment connections. The first was run by the Australian Council of Trade Unions titled ‘Repowering our homes: An Electrifying opportunity’ which focussed on climate impact on the cost of living and how government can help households slash their power bills with solar, batteries, electric appliances, and efficiency upgrades and explored the impact of those households becoming producers, not merely consumers, of energy.
The second event, ‘The Role of Jobs and Skills in transitioning to a Green Economy’, was hosted by LinkedIn and looked at the role of jobs and skills in climate action. It featured Australian leaders from government, industry and the education sector, and highlighted insights from LinkedIn’s Economic Graph and 2024 Green Skills Report.
This subject strikes a particular chord with me having signed CIOB up to the IMEA’s #GreenSkillsatCOP campaign to push for green skills to be integrated into national action plans for biodiversity and climate change. Without the right people with the right skills to design, create and maintain the built environment, climate targets will not be reached.
Elsewhere at COP29, it was particularly good to hear international case studies of successful examples of constructed wetlands as an alternative to hard water treatment infrastructure and I was delighted to have the opportunity to share information about CIOB’s latest digital series #TheNatureofBuilding, part two of which went live during week two of COP. As a sustainability professional, I feel biodiversity is often in the shadow of carbon and it’s a subject that needs a much higher profile. The two are of course also inextricably linked.
I was also particularly interested to hear how South African real estate company Balwin Properties (a build to sell developer) had made an early commitment to third-party certification for all new developments. They explained how this had become the main value proposition for their clients who not only want high quality, efficient homes with low running costs and better quality of life but also benefit from mortgage cost concessions as finance institutions there recognise the reduction in risk from sustainable buildings.
Reflecting on everything I saw and heard at COP29, the words that will most stay with me formed part of a compelling speech from Minister Dasai of the Government of Suriname who highlighted that they are a forest island nation, with 90 per cent forest coverage providing a vital carbon sink which stores more carbon than their economy emits. He said: “Climate change is an existential threat for island nations and those least responsible will suffer the most. Developed nations have a duty to help and this is not charity or aid, it is climate justice, and an investment in all of our futures.”
I ultimately left COP29 with mixed feelings. The international negotiations clearly ended in disappointment with the final deal being a compromise that left nobody satisfied and was a long way off the package developing nations were asking for. It’s hard to escape the feeling that we are seriously running out of time. On the other hand, however, there were also lots of examples of positive action and innovation to learn from, especially from those representing the built environment. Someone described the sector as a “sleeping giant” in the fight against climate change and it’s time we wake that giant up.
