A University of Dundee academic is calling for ‘less talk and more action’ from COP29, who is attending the global climate change conference as a negotiator.
Dr Nandan Mukherjee, of the University’s UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science, wants to see real action taking place this year through tangible initiatives such as climate resilient housing. Dr Mukherjee says that while he accepts that targets must be set, after 30 years of ‘talking’ the reality is that ‘relatively little progress’ has been made.
He said, “We have been negotiating for 30 years now but the reality is that the root cause of climate change – greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere – is not going down, it’s going up.
“In 1992 – three years before COP was established – the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air was 352 ppm [parts per million]. Now it is 422 ppm. “It’s going up every year. We want reasonable actions for that.” Dr Mukherjee says there is already technology available which can make a huge difference and he is calling for backing from COP to boost development and utilisation of it.
For example, climate resilient housing which Dr Mukherjee co-designed with a team of researchers at the University of Dundee, can lift up on stilts during floods, withstand cyclones and earthquakes, and generate its own electricity and food sources. A small number of these homes have already been built in flood-prone areas in Bangladesh. With an extremely low material and construction cost of just £7000, these could be produced at scale around the world.
The low build cost is achieved through using a newly created brick designed by the researchers, which is three times stronger than sandstone and can be adapted to use local materials, therefore eliminating exportation costs and emissions for materials.
“These homes are built to Net Zero standard,” Dr Mukherjee said. “Construction of the houses achieves Net Zero and when they are used as intended, they are carbon negative.
“One third of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere come from the construction sector, so the University of Dundee’s climate resistant home directly addresses that problem. “We just need to see a lot more support globally to expand projects like this for a much wider good and to really address the crisis before us.” The main purpose of COP, or the Conference of the Parties, is for its 197 member countries plus the EU to negotiate how to approach climate change related issues and assess progress on them.
This includes progress in working towards 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, which aim to end poverty and other deprivations while tackling climate change. Dr Mukherjee continued, “Many countries speak positively about achieving their SDGs by 2030, but the reality is very different.
“Homelessness is increasing, water scarcity is increasing, energy security is decreasing, food security is decreasing – none of these are positive things. “Despite all of the policies created over the years, we are not seeing many solutions. What I want from this COP is solutions. We have said enough.”
This year’s conference takes place in Baku, in Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 22. Dr Mukherjee is acting as a negotiator on the Loss and Damage committee at COP29, representing the government of Bangladesh, and participating in the new development of Net Zero principles and SDGs.
He explained his expectations from this event include establishing a new finance goal, operationalising the loss and damage finance mechanism, and enhancing commitment to Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
As part of the Paris agreement in 2015, negotiators set a target to keep global temperature rises between 1.5-2C but recent reports show that the ongoing NDCs will result in a 2.8C increase, which Dr Mukherjee says would be ‘catastrophic’ therefore new targets must be established. Other expectations include a global goal on adaptation, green taxonomy in new sustainable finance goals, and a specific timeline for the phasing out of fossil fuels.
