Co-benefit climate action is the key to meeting the Paris Climate Agreement. Building design can help lead the way, writes Adele Houghton
We are halfway through the timeline set by the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 to transition the global economy away from its dependence on fossil fuels by 2030, and it is clear we are on the wrong track.
While the Paris Climate Agreement mentions mitigation (for example by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases into Earth’s atmosphere), adaptation (i.e., increasing our resilience to climate change-related events), and the health effects of climate change as important pillars of the global response to the climate crisis, only mitigation is designated with a threshold (net zero) and a deadline (2030). Furthermore, signatories are not required to track progress below the country level or provide context to explain the co-benefits and co-harms associated with one mitigation strategy versus another. Unfortunately, the 2022 progress report for the