Informal dispatches from COP 26

DAY 4 — 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

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If I can sit here and feel pleased for a while about my low-carbon diet, I do have to consider the many among these 25,000 who flew to Scotland—from Washington DC, from Dar-es-Salaam, from Tokyo, from all points of the globe. And how about the four hundred private jets that brought the dignitaries and stars? Sigh. It’s complicated, and the climate-care goals remain a long way off, but there’s good reason to have hope and perhaps to exude some confidence.

The issues of environmental impact, resource degradation, biodiversity loss, social inequities and injustices; these matters seem to be at the center of agendas for most national governments, many non-government organizations, and more than a few huge multinational corporations. As an architect active for years in national and international professional institutions, I am convinced that people will judge us (and we will judge ourselves) in terms of how well we deliver on the promise to reduce the environmental costs—the carbon footprint, if you must—of buildings and how we build them.

Our major associations—the AIA, the RIBA, the UIA, and others—appear to be in general agreement about the importance of buildings and the means needed to improve their design and performance. The mission here in Glasgow is to help the policymakers chart a path to doing just that . . . well and urgently.

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Tom is sending DesignIntelligence daily dispatches from COP 26 and offering his seasoned insights and observations along the way.