Informal dispatches from COP 26
DAY 3 — A Member of the Carbon Generation Goes to Glasgow
By Thomas Vonier
FAIA RIBA
Immediate Past President, International Union of Architects
Former President, American Institute of Architects
Except for the parts on foot, from home to the métro and between trains, I traveled to Glasgow from my residence in Paris by rail. The journey took about ten hours and involved a harried change of rail stations in London. I wanted to reduce my “carbon footprint,” which is supposed to reflect the quantity of so-called greenhouse gases generated by a defined activity.
These gases—principally carbon dioxide and methane, but also water vapor and chlorofluorocarbons—trap infrared energy and thus help to raise temperatures on the Earth’s surface. Did I succeed in reducing the environmental impact of the trip? Here’s what “The Man in Seat 61” has to say (the man is Mark Smith, a passenger rail advocate and an authority on the carbon released into the atmosphere by various forms of travel): “ . . . Eurostar commissioned independent research to assess the CO2 per passenger produced by a London-Paris Eurostar journey versus that emitted by a passenger on a London-Paris flight.
The research looked at actual Eurostar passenger loadings, actual Eurostar power consumption, the way Eurostar’s electricity is generated, actual aircraft loadings, actual aircraft fuel consumption, and so on. The conclusion was remarkable: Taking the train to Paris instead of flying cuts CO2 emissions per passenger by a staggering 90 percent.”
Tom is sending DesignIntelligence daily dispatches from COP 26 and offering his seasoned insights and observations along the way.