Improving the operational carbon footprint of buildings by, for example, insulation and electrifying the grid, is one solution. A second solution is to reduce the embodied carbon of constructing a building. Finally, policies and incentives such as creating a lead market need to be put in place to support low-carbon products which contribute to creating lower-carbon buildings.
We need to decarbonise the building sector, which amounts to 39% of global GHG emissions. While traditionally the focus has been on operational carbon, we need to tackle embodied carbon. Reducing embodied carbon in buildings is a multifaceted challenge, involving decarbonisation of manufacturing of construction materials, and of construction operations.
Although consumers do pay attention to the environmental factor in their consumption choices, the most important factor for them is their personal convenience. Because of convenient return policies, consumers tend to send back their purchases more and more often, and big companies like Amazon regularly have to dispose of these items as they cannot simply be resold. Individuals should keep in mind the impact that their demand for convenience can have on the development of environmentally harmful (e-)commerce and make small and practical changes in their everyday habits.
Our world is facing a polycrisis for which growth is primarily responsibleGreen growth will not save us as it does not address key issueDegrowth could provide an alternative to our ways of being that meets everyone's basic needs within planetary boundaries
Climate change creates physical, transition and liability risk. Climate risk helps to quantify the potential and realised impacts of climate change for private sector, especially banks. However, considering the complexity of global climate change, can any risk parameter truy encapsulate it?
The diversity of investors in renewable energy has increased, opening up the pre-existing range of investment opportunities in renewables to greater scrutiny of risk and return. Renewable energy is not an asset class in itself but is a sub-category within several asset classes. Key risks which may need to be computed into the APT model are: price interaction with fossil fuel technologies, complexity of storing renewable-derived commodities, unknown future risks of renewable technologies, the capital-intensive nature of renewable “real estate”, the differing levels of commercial readiness of renewable technologies, regulatory volatility in the jurisdictions in which renewable energy projects are based.
A rise in temperature will lead to a decrease in labor productivity (more dehydration, chronic health diseases and even death) which will further leading to a decline in economic activity. A critical factor to curtail losses in work capacity will be the extent of application of preventive strategies (such as cooling technologies, hydration, and work rotation) in outdoor and indoor work environment. Policy reforms should include long-term and short-term measures to mitigate the impact of heat on workers’ productivity. Long-term measures like reducing greenhouse emissions and short-term measures like providing clean drinking water at the workplace, good air conditioning, shade cover, and utilizing green architects to capture natural air and light.
TCFD stands for Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures. The TCFD’s overall aim is to encourage a greener and thus more stable international financial system. The TCFD disclosures allow investors and financial institutions to make more informed and clearer price risk related decisions. Making climate disclosures mandatory in alignment with TCFD’s framework encourages a greater international effort to move towards a greener economy.
Universal Basic Income (UBI) has shifted from a radical agenda to a relevant policy proposal, especially since the pandemic · UBI could have positive environmental impacts, such as reducing status-based consumption and facilitating more sustainable food practices · UBI must be introduced in a way that complements other policy shifts towards environmental protection and social justice
Ecological economics focuses on the need for human economic activity to not extend beyond our ecological ceiling whilst providing prosperity for all. It differs from neoclassical (more traditional) forms of economics in that there is not an emphasis on growth but rather ensuring planetary and societal welfare through redistributive and regenerative systems. Some current day examples of economic frameworks that use ecological economics are degrowth (Hickel & Kallis) and Doughnut Economics (Kate Raworth).