Sustt: Mercury rising, Balancing act, Bison are back, Nepal turns to nature, Money where your mouth is

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Mercury rising

We need to think about sustainable cooling???

by Marc Height (Head of Sustainability)

What’s happening??In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been rather hot. Tuesday saw temperatures in the UK push past 40C for the first time ever, and wildfires have been raging across the continent. But, extreme heat has not just been impacting the UK and Europe. The US, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia have also been significantly affected. (The Guardian ,?Reuters ,?BBC News ,?Reuters )

What should we do??As well as planning how we can adapt to these increasingly frequent events, we need to think carefully about how we keep ourselves cool in our warming world.

As the International Energy Agency (IEA)?highlighted ?in a major report in 2018, future demand for air conditioning in countries – like the UK –?that do not have a large AC stock at present represents a ticking carbon time bomb. Without action, global energy demand from air conditioners is likely to triple by 2050. This would require new electricity capacity equivalent to that currently installed in the EU, the US and Japan combined.

From a climate perspective, going all-out to install conventional air conditioning technologies to deal with heat events would be akin to hiding behind a heat screen while also pouring petrol on an open fire.

To solve this problem, which if left unmitigated would result in 10 new air conditioning units sold every second for the next 30 years, the IEA says it’s key to develop more efficient AC – which can make a considerable difference to energy use – and set mandatory energy performance standards for AC units. More efficient units would also be more affordable to run.

As well as striving for efficiency, we could also work to change our?perceptions of thermal comfort .

Investing in the urban environment –?The UK’s Climate Change Committee has highlighted numerous other solutions including passive building design and?smarter city design ?in a?recent report ?addressing overheating in the UK’s building stock. Looking to how humans adapted to hot environments in the past can also yield solutions. For example, passive cooling urban infrastructure such as?wind towers ?have been?replicated ?in more recent city designs.

We shouldn’t forget insulation which, as well as keeping houses warm in the winter, can play a role keeping the heat out of buildings in the summer – so long as its designed correctly. Combined with heat pumps, which are inherently energy efficient and can work in reverse to provide cooling in the summer, such investment in building stock will – as we’ve?previously argued ?– make a great deal of sense from both a thermal comfort and energy security perspective.

????Read more on the Sustt blog

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Balancing act

Global gender parity sees only minimal gains between 2021 and 2022

The World Economic Forum’s annual?Global Gender Gap Report ?assesses each country's gender gaps in four key areas to devise a global figure for gender parity. These areas are economic participation, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

The highest score a nation can obtain is "one" and the lowest is "zero". One-hundred percent gender parity would mean globally there was gender equality across these four factors in every nation.?

Based on data from 146 countries, this year's report found that the global gender parity score was 68.1% in 2022, which constitutes a slight improvement from 2021. A more detailed breakdown of the calculations used to devise this score can be found on page 55 of the?report .?

At the regional level, the report finds that North America leads in regard to gender parity, with Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean ranking second and third, respectively. In contrast, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and South Asia have the lowest performance across all four dimensions.

????As we've previously noted, gender equality and climate action are intertwined. Find out why here.

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Bite-sized insights

What else we're seeing this week ??

• Bison are back?– A small number of wild bison have been?reintroduced ?to the UK under rewilding efforts – the restoration of landscapes altered by human activity back to a natural state. The initiative mirrors similar efforts in?Romania ?and will see the bison act as “ecosystem engineers”. Their natural behaviour will shift a dense commercial pine forest habitat into a natural woodland, simultaneously improving local biodiversity and carbon absorption abilities. Other species being introduced in the UK include?beavers , which reduce flooding risk by building dams, and?lynx . According to the UN, an area the size of China must be?restored ?for the world to achieve its climate change and nature targets.
• Nepal turns to nature?–?Plants such as ladder brake, morning glory and Indian mustard could be used in Nepal to combat heavy metal pollution in soil and water, according to?researchers ?at Tribhuvan University. Low-cost phytoremediation has been used in some areas of the US and Europe to contain and degrade toxins such as lead, arsenic and copper. Nepal has vast plant wealth, but the researchers said some alterations to species or to the surrounding environment may be needed to optimise results.
• Put your money where your mouth is?–Investing in plant-based meat alternatives generates larger cuts in emissions linked to climate change than any other green investment, according to analysis from the?Boston Consulting Group . There is momentum gathering behind alternative proteins, but it’s worth noting there is still some uncertainty surrounding the sector.?High-profile names , for example, have struggled after tapping the public markets for capital. It’s also worth pointing out that traditional “Big Meat” companies are?starting to muscle in ?on the space – meaning an investment in meat substitutes may also be an investment in climate-impacting meat products.

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