Towards a sustainable built environment
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The thrust of Kyoto is the more or less immediate limiting of emissions in developed
countries through the introduction of targets drawn from a 1990 baseline level.
These equate to a modest 5.2% by 2008–12. The Protocol recognises that requiring
immediate emissions reduction from countries in the developing world would be
inequitable, and so developing world countries are not included in the first set of
targets. Moreover, the introduction of an emissions trading scheme provides an
incentive for wealthy countries, whereby they can offset any shortfall in their allotted
emissions targets through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM
aims to provide finance and technology to developing countries hoping to ‘leapfrog’
to cleaner industry. Since much of the developed world’s industrial production has
been transferred to developing world countries, effectively passing them the pollution
problems that once plagued developed countries, it is seen to be fair that developed
countries help to equip developing world countries with the necessary technology and
processes for dealing with emissions.
The Clean Development Mechanism is effectively a ‘polluter pays’ system on a global
scale. However, it is not without its faults, and is hindered by the absence of the
world’s worst offender in terms of emissions, the USA. Whether or not it is the right
vehicle for reducing carbon emissions, the CDM remains the only system which cuts
to the heart of the climate change issue. Creating, agreeing and implementing an
alternative system in a short timescale would present significant challenges.
It has been suggested that the current CDM system would be more appropriate if
individuals, rather than businesses, were carbon taxed. Every person on Earth would
have a ‘carbon allocation’ which, if exceeded, would have to be topped up with credit
acquired from someone who had not used their full allocation. For example, a person
living in New York, with a carbon footprint exceeding their allocation, would be obliged
to buy credits from someone using less, perhaps from the developing world. The
benefits of such a system would be its targeting of the problem of individual carbon
(energy) use and its redistribution of wealth towards those who have to or choose to
adopt low carbon lifestyles.
5.5 Skills for sustainability
Given the complexity of the subject it would be difficult to be comprehensive, but
the following outlines a universal methodical approach covering six core skills:
leadership, planning, understanding, stakeholder co-operation, innovation and
moderation.
1 Leadership
A feature of all projects promoting sustainability as a core long-term goal is strong
leadership. In a world where sustainable practices are not common, enthusiastic and
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