Climate change tops the agenda

Importantly, the report was largely supported by business as well as the traditional green pressure groups. Climate change has come of age and is now, after Iraq, the biggest issue of our times.

The government must take on an empowering role. It must encourage stakeholders to support the new building regulations, such as Part L, and to fully implement the EPBD. Other directives such as the WEEE must also be completely and effectively brought into law and their intended outcomes achieved in order to attain a less wasteful society.

The Stern Report called for many things CIBSE members have been pressing for for some time. It called for far greater investment in low carbon technologies and the removal of barriers to behavioural change. The success of the 100 Days of Carbon Clean Up and the take up of the Low Carbon Consultants Register has proved to us here at CIBSE that the engineering sector is reacting to demands for greater environmental standards.

We are looking at what we can learn from those campaigns to help government bring about effective behavioural change. CIBSE’s Carbon 60 project has been helped by the shift in staff attitudes to reducing energy consumption and being part of the solution to climate change. But it’s not easy, and persuading people they have a stake in the outcome and they can play a meaningful role in achieving it will be a challenge.

To achieve this level of engagement, government must not only talk the language of empowerment but must provide the resources needed to achieve it. Proper resources must be put into existing schemes to ensure those already engaging with climate change are not overlooked or sidelined by headline news and new government announcements. HIPS are a case in point.

I was pleased to see the Report threw down the gauntlet to the science and engineering sectors to come up with effective solutions. We must continue to invest in the development of new low-carbon technologies and we must make sure building technologies form a large part of this. Just as climate change has caught the popular imagination, it is now time for us to promote engineering to a new generation who will be the engineers and scientists of the future.

Only by building up knowledge, enthusiasm and experience will this new triumvirate of citizen, business and government be able to take everyone on this fraught but exciting path. The Stern Report proves that the direction CIBSE took in recent years on energy and carbon emissions was the right one, and we correctly anticipated the public’s reaction to the scientific evidence of climate change.

It seems to me the legislative framework is crucial in the long-term response to climate change. CIBSE has excellent relations with central government and its stakeholders, but how can we use the relatively rigid legal framework and the inherent time lag to best deal with the issues that face us?

Traditionally, “market forces” have been the driver for change but now there are more pressing, complex issues and a global dimension to the climate and energy issues that we face. We must ensure our membership, the government and business exploit our knowledge, use our members and fulfil project responsibilities to continue to rise to the task ahead.