The new climate

Likewise, it will surprise nobody if prime minister Tony Blair’s talk of action to tackle climate change at this month’s G8 summit at Gleneagles is mitigated by the need to keep a sceptical US government on board.

But while national governments quibble and prevaricate on measures to tackle global warming, city governments are taking matters into their own hands. Frustrated by Washington’s failure to recognise the scientific consensus that climate change is happening, more than 140 American cities have snubbed their own president George Bush and signed up to the Kyoto targets.

A similar move is under way in the UK. London mayor Ken Livingstone has made clear his intention to tackle climate change by setting up the London Climate Change Agency to work with companies to finance and operate carbon neutral buildings. And in April’s BSj (“Shades of green”) we reported on an initiative by councils to tackle climate change through local planning policy by making it a requirement for all new buildings to meet at least 10% of their energy needs from site-based renewables.

This grassroots approach to tackling climate change is gaining momentum. After all, the threat it poses is non-partisan: all over the world people are already suffering its effects, in the form of flash floods, hosepipe bans, high winds and record temperatures.

A similar grassroots movement is happening in construction. Many large corporations believe carbon controls and trading are inevitable and want to get ahead of the game. But while business may be comfortable tackling financial sustainability, it is likely to need specialist input when it comes to making its premises energy efficient. As Georgia Elliott-Smith says in our interview (page 32), companies understand money and will become more environmentally responsible if they are provided with the right financial incentives – which means that services engineers can also get out there and do their bit.

Andy Pearson