Other thoughts on Paris and the Declaration de Chaillot

I asked some others who were there for comments and did a podcast.

I wrote this a few days ago and forgot to hit publish! I am on the rails today, but have new content coming soon.

After the Paris Buildings and Climate Conference that came up with the Declaration de Chaillot, described in my earlier post here, I asked a few of the people I met there to give me their thoughts, to see if they were as excited as I was. This was back a few weeks ago when we were all still in a daze. I probably should have published them right away but waited until I discussed the conference with Will Arnold and Kelly Alvarez Doran on the podcast Zero Ambitions (Listen here) so that you could have some audio to go with the words.

Here are the comments I received, for the record:

Marine Girard, Head of Sufficiency Programs, Housing and International Cooperation, French Institute for Buildings' Performance, who was responsible for putting the sufficiency discussion together:

"The Chaillot Declaration, signed by 70 countries, is the culmination of an unprecedented call to bring together buildings' policy-makers for the first time in history. When we see climate figures and the growing role that buildings play in them, we must come to the conclusion that urgent and bold actions are needed, now, not tomorrow. The first of them should be reframing all policy and business strategies around sufficiency measures. I truly hope that this stays in heads and hearts going back home to immediately take action everywhere possible."

Peter Moonen, Canadian Wood Council:

“As a wood guy, it was very gratifying to see wood and other bio-based materials reaffirmed,  if not elevated, for the critical role they will play in decarbonizing  the built environment. Every architect, engineer, and construction professional will need to up their game and understand bio-based materials. And those that have been the tip of the spear in advocating and using wood deserve our collective thanks.” 

Lisa Richmond, Climate Strategy Works, Architecture 2030

“As a first effort to align and commit parties to the Paris agreement behind building decarbonization, the Declaration de Chaillot is remarkable in its breadth.  The process could easily have been driven by big commercial interests, pushing for manufactured efficiency solutions that amounted to business as usual.  Remarkably, that’s not where we ended up.  The Declaration de Chaillot commits its 70 signatory nations to systemic, sufficiency-first strategies - minimizing resource consumption, prioritizing re-use, reigning in sprawl and leaning into nature - and endorses a raft of regulatory, financial and private-sector tools to achieve them.  One glaring omission: the Declaration largely fails to address climate justice.  How do we confront global disparities between highly developed and developing economies, understanding future development as a fundamental, equity-driven re-allocation of our remaining carbon budget?”

Will Arnold of the Institution of Structural Engineers sent me a very engineer-like summary of the Declaration that is more thorough than mine:

• The Declaration is endorsed by 70 countries. In includes a call for countries to be:

  • Anticipating, preparing for, and adapting to changing climate conditions, natural hazards and extreme weather events

  • Prioritising the reuse, re-purposing and renovation of existing buildings and infrastructures to minimize the use of non-renewable resources, maximize and energy efficiency and achieving climate neutrality sustainability and safety with particular focus on the lowest performing buildings

  • Prioritising on-site assets, recycled and end-of-life use, local, sustainable, bio/geo-sourced, low carbon, energy efficient materials, products and components ensuring easy maintenance and repair for life extension, aligned with circular economy, eco-design and sufficiency and waste prevention principles, enhancing carbon balance through storage and absorption in building materials;

  • Minimizing water and energy use, waste and generated pollution as well as biodiversity loss on construction sites.

• And for governments to commit to:

  • Leading by example through ambitious procurement policies with particular attention to public building procurements

  • Promoting the production, development and use of low-carbon and sustainably sourced construction material at affordable costs

  • Promoting collaborative value chains, as well as research and development for innovative, sustainable, affordable, cost-effective and healthy solutions, particularly for conventional and hard-to-abate industries [e.g., steel and concrete], enhancing local sourcing of traditional appropriate low-tech solutions;

• And finally to:

  • Establish an “Intergovernmental Council for Buildings and Climate” gathering governments and facilitated by the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, to exchange insights, share achievements, address obstacles, formulate recommendations, discuss follow-ups and assess the implementation of this Declaration and, for the concerned, other intergovernmental initiatives, recommendations and action plans.

  • This intergovernmental council will convene:

    • - twice a year online, at senior administration level, to inform on the latest news and developments in each country and to exchange information and share experiences on policies and practices;

    • - Yearly, at ministerial level, in conjunction with an international event (World Urban Forum, UNFCCC-COP, UNEA, etc.);

    • - If possible, every 3 years with stakeholders, in a “Buildings and Climate Global Forum”.

And back to our regular programming soon!