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The IHBC has responded firmly to the IPCC\u2019s Sixth Assessment Report \u2013 which highlights how climate change is intensifying – by highlighting the urgent need to care for our historic environment, as \u2018conserving our places also conserves our planet\u2019.<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
IHBC Chair David McDonald said: \u2018This new IPCC report confirms that we have our hand over the candle\u2019s flame, and that it is up to us how badly we will get burned!\u00a0 It is, as they say, \u2018a reality-check\u2019.<\/p>\n
We all know what this report re-confirms: \u2018that human actions still have the potential to determine the future course of climate\u2018.<\/p>\n
Our traditional and historic buildings and places are central to how we can managing carbon.\u00a0 So we must have rounded policies and evidence-behaviours that actually manage that carbon, proportionately as well as wisely.\u2019<\/p>\n
We grossly misrepresent how the proper care and improvement of our historic and traditional places keeps carbon in check if we treat them either as the exclusive domain of \u2018heritage anoraks\u2019, or as bits of our planet ripe for replacement.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Those prejudices and presumptions about conservation continue to shape policy, investment and practice across both heritage and the development sectors.\u00a0 Quite simply, that approach condemns the local communities, both those living there now and in the future.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018On foot of this IPCC report, the IHBC calls on all players to \u2018get real on climate change\u2019 and look after our historic environment properly, as conserving our places also conserves our planet!\u2019<\/p>\n
Convenor of the IHBC\u2019s green panel, Crispin Edwards, said: \u2018The IPCC\u2019s report underlines the need for the IHBC to continue to promote conservation of the historic environment, an inherently sustainable activity.\u00a0 Our position statement on \u2018Sustainability and Conservation of the Historic Built Environment<\/em><\/a>\u2019 makes that quite clear.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018At the same time the IHBC is active in delivering a number of practical solutions.\u00a0 We working with many partners \u2013 including members of England\u2019s Historic Environment Forum – to define actions for organisations in the sector to minimise our own carbon footprints.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018We are also working as part of the Climate Heritage Network<\/a> to promote placing genuine whole-life sustainability at the heart of government policy aiming to reduce the carbon output from UK buildings.\u2019<\/p>\n The IPPC writes:<\/p>\n Scientists are observing changes in the Earth\u2019s climate in every region and across the whole climate system, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report\u2026. Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion\u2014such as continued sea level rise\u2014are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years.<\/p>\n However, strong and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) and other greenhouse gases would limit climate change. While benefits for air quality would come quickly, it could take 20-30 years to see global temperatures stabilize, according to the IPCC Working Group I report, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis<\/em>, approved on Friday by 195 member governments of the IPCC, through a virtual approval session that was held over two weeks starting on July 26.<\/p>\n The Working Group I report is the first instalment of the IPCC\u2019s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), which will be completed in 2022.<\/p>\n \u2018This report reflects extraordinary efforts under exceptional circumstances,\u2019 said Hoesung Lee, Chair of the IPCC. \u2018The innovations in this report, and advances in climate science that it reflects, provide an invaluable input into climate negotiations and decision-making.\u2019<\/p>\n Faster warming<\/strong><\/p>\n The report provides new estimates of the chances of crossing the global warming level of 1.5\u00b0C in the next decades, and finds that unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5\u00b0C or even 2\u00b0C will be beyond reach.<\/p>\n The report shows that emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are responsible for approximately 1.1\u00b0C of warming since 1850-1900, and finds that averaged over the next 20 years, global temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5\u00b0C of warming. This assessment is based on improved observational datasets to assess historical warming, as well progress in scientific understanding of the response of the climate system to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n \u2018This report is a reality check,\u2019 said IPCC Working Group I Co-Chair Val\u00e9rie Masson-Delmotte. \u2018We now have a much clearer picture of the past, present and future climate, which is essential for understanding where we are headed, what can be done, and how we can prepare.\u2019<\/p>\n Every region facing increasing changes<\/strong><\/p>\n Many characteristics of climate change directly depend on the level of global warming, but what people experience is often very different to the global average. For example, warming over land is larger than the global average, and it is more than twice as high in the Arctic.<\/p>\n \u2018Climate change is already affecting every region on Earth, in multiple ways. The changes we experience will increase with additional warming,\u2019 said IPCC Working Group I Co-Chair Panmao Zhai.<\/p>\n The report projects that in the coming decades climate changes will increase in all regions. For 1.5\u00b0C of global warming, there will be increasing heat waves, longer warm seasons and shorter cold seasons. At 2\u00b0C of global warming, heat extremes would more often reach critical tolerance thresholds for agriculture and health, the report shows.<\/p>\n But it is not just about temperature. Climate change is bringing multiple different changes in different regions \u2013 which will all increase with further warming. These include changes to wetness and dryness, to winds, snow and ice, coastal areas and oceans. For example:<\/p>\n For the first time, the Sixth Assessment Report provides a more detailed regional assessment of climate change, including a focus on useful information that can inform risk assessment, adaptation, and other decision-making, and a new framework that helps translate physical changes in the climate \u2013 heat, cold, rain, drought, snow, wind, coastal flooding and more \u2013 into what they mean for society and ecosystems.<\/p>\n This regional information can be explored in detail in the newly developed Interactive Atlas interactive-atlas.ipcc.ch<\/a> as well as regional fact sheets, the technical summary, and underlying report.<\/p>\n Human influence on the past and future climate<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2018It has been clear for decades that the Earth\u2019s climate is changing, and the role of human influence on the climate system is undisputed,\u2019 said Masson-Delmotte. Yet the new report also reflects major advances in the science of attribution \u2013 understanding the role of climate change in intensifying specific weather and climate events such as extreme heat waves and heavy rainfall events.<\/p>\n The report also shows that human actions still have the potential to determine the future course of climate. The evidence is clear that carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) is the main driver of climate change, even as other greenhouse gases and air pollutants also affect the climate.<\/p>\n \u2018Stabilizing the climate will require strong, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and reaching net zero CO2<\/sub> emissions. Limiting other greenhouse gases and air pollutants, especially methane, could have benefits both for health and the climate,\u2019 said Zhai.<\/p>\n Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n View the report<\/a><\/p>\n See the IHBC\u2019s Position statement on \u2018Sustainability and Conservation of the Historic Built Environment\u2019<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n See more on conservation and climate on the IHBC\u2019s ToolBox<\/a><\/p>\n
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