Climate change is the biggest issue of our time
The built environment is one of the major contributors to carbon emissions. Deep emissions cuts have to occur urgently if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
An increasing global reliance on fossil fuels – alongside emissions from industrial processes, deforestation, and animal farming – has meant an accelerating rise in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and global temperature over the past 200 years. This is resulting in climate breakdown: with more frequent and intense storms, droughts, wildfires, sea levels rising and devastating losses for people and nature across the world; delay in action will result in an increasingly uninhabitable world.
In order to avoid catastrophic 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 above pre-industrial levels. Reaching this is a truly global challenge, one that all countries, organisations and individuals must participate in. The Irish Government, through The Climate Action Plan 2021, is committed to achieving a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, from a 2018 baseline, and net-zero emissions by 2050.
The resources in this section of the School will help you to understand the causes of climate change, why it is such an urgent issue for us all to tackle, and importantly what we can do about it.
Climate Change and Carbon - Sustainability Short
Watch this video, to learn about the basic science and causes of climate change, both globally and across different sectors, including the built environment
The built environment accounted for 12.3% of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. Meeting the needs of society within the ecological boundaries of our planet demands a reorganisation of the way we design, build and maintain buildings and infrastructure. Everyone and every organisation has a role to play. And importantly everyone should have access to and be included in the move to a low carbon society – a just transition.
Direct emissions – exhaust from vehicles, stacks at power facilities – aren’t the only source of greenhouse gases. The embodied energy and carbon ‘locked up’ in products, materials and assets is also important to consider. Emissions are released when energy is used to extract raw materials, to transport goods, and in manufacturing, as well as in the use and disposal of objects.
We can all reduce our emissions by using less energy on site, procuring goods with carbon in mind, and considering whole life carbon in the design stage. Reducing carbon can come in many guises: being resource efficient and creating less waste by using less materials and recycling will inherently have carbon benefits too.
Energy and Carbon
Causes and Effects of Climate Change
Video
2 minutesEnergy and Carbon
Brilliant Buildings – Delivering Sustainability
Document/Presentation
Energy and Carbon
Introduction to Climate Change and Carbon
E-learning module
Energy and Carbon
Greenhouse Gas Protocol – Standard
Document/Presentation
