the times | Wednesday December 2 2020 2GM 23
News
Pledges to cut emissions made by Joe
Biden, the US president-elect, and
China have helped to put the world
“within striking distance” of meeting the
most ambitious goal of the Paris agree-
ment on climate change, a report says.
If governments fulfil all their pro-
mises to become carbon neutral within
30 or 40 years, the global temperature
increase could be limited to 2.1C above
pre-industrial levels by 2100, according
to the assessment by two not-for-profit
research groups.
Under the Paris agreement, which
came into force in 2016, 190 countries
agreed to keep the increase this century
to “well below two degrees” and to
“pursue efforts” to limit it to 1.5C.
President Trump formally withdrew
the US from the Paris agreement last
month but Mr Biden has said that the
country will join again after he be-
comes president. He has also pledged
that the US will achieve net zero emis-
sions by 2050. Britain made a legally
binding commitment to that last year.
In September President Xi of China
told the UN that his country would
reach net zero emissions by 2060, and
that its emissions would peak before
- China’s commitment alone
would reduce global warming by 2100
by 0.2 to 0.3C compared with what it
would otherwise have been, according
The Duke of Sussex has been a soldier,
helicopter pilot, conservationist and
charity campaigner. Now he is a rain-
drop. And, if the rest of the world is to
join him in his quest to save the planet,
we would all be raindrops too.
The duke’s vivid imagery — his way
of urging people to work together —
came as he spoke about the fight
against climate change at the launch of
Waterbear, a Netflix-style platform for
US and China
put climate deal
back on course
to Climate Analytics and NewClimate
Institute, which produce the Climate
Action Tracker reports. Mr Biden’s
pledge would reduce it by 0.1C.
There are now 127 countries, respon-
sible for about 63 per cent of global
emissions, that have adopted or are
considering such goals. If they all met
those targets, global warming by 2100
“could be as low as 2.1C” and the Paris
agreement’s 1.5C limit would be “within
striking distance”, the report says.
However, it says that countries have
not set out how they would achieve
their long-term goals and have yet to
strengthen their targets for cutting
emissions by 2030 to put them on
course to honour their pledges. Actual
policies on switching to renewable
energy, it says, suggest the world is on
course for 2.9C of warming by 2100.
“No large emitter has yet submitted a
substantially updated [2030 target],
and the emissions gap is huge. Short-
term targets... are totally off,” Bill Hare,
of Climate Analytics, said.
Professor Martin Siegert, of Imperial
College London, said it was “extremely
positive news” but added: “Even at 2.1C,
which is another 1C of warming from
today, the world looks set for more
heatwaves and wildfires, more flood-
ing, reduced ability to grow crops and
less access to fresh water.”
US can’t afford to let China win new
space race, Roger Boyes, page 28Ben Webster Environment Editor
W
hen
designing a
base in the
Antarctic,
there are two great
enemies: the outside and
the inside (Tom Whipple
writes).
“It is quite an extreme
environment,” Hugh
Broughton, the British
architect, said. Excellent
thermal insulation, walls
that can withstand icy
gales, and doors that donot get blocked by snow
are, naturally, all
important.
In his latest
commission, to design
Australia’s Davis research
station, Mr Broughton
also factored in a more
subtle but crucial
consideration. “If you
spend winter in the
Antarctic, you are there
for the long haul — the
last planes and boats
leave in February — and
people can become quite
isolationist.”
Even if they grow to
loathe their fellow
overwinterers, it is
unhealthy to have no
contact. “We design the
building to encourage
them to bump into each
other and have a chat.”Since Mr Broughton’s
fledgling company won a
British Antarctic Survey
competition in 2005 to
design the Halley VI
research station, he has
cornered much of the
work on the continent.
He won the commission
for Spain’s Juan Carlos I
base and redeveloped
New Zealand’s Scott base.
Now he has been hired to
revamp Davis, which was
established in 1957.
Many of the challenges
with the bases are the
same. “It takes a huge
amount of effort and
energy to keep them
snow-free,” he said.
“There’s an increasing
tendency to lift them off
the ground. The wind just
pushes the snow away.”Then there are the
logistics. “You want to be
able to build quickly and
efficiently. You can really
only do that in the
summer season, which is
10 to 15 weeks.”
Each base brings its
own difficulties. At Davis
“the snow disappears in
summer and the winds
pick up grit and sand-
blast the building. We
have to make it very
aerodynamic.”
But for every bad day
there is one that makes
up for it. Since becoming
Antarctica’s chief
architect Mr Broughton
has visited five times.
“Once you get into it, and
especially once you have
been there, it becomes a
passion,” he said.Architect of
Antarctica
seeks warm
relations
HB ARCHITECTSWeddell Sea
South Pole
ANTARCTICA
Ross Ice
ShelfA
Halley VI500 milesDavis
research
stationAmery Ice
ShelfHugh Broughton’s
vision for Australia’s
Davis research station
in Antarctica, which
aims for sociabilityLet’s all be raindrops, says Harry
environmental and conservation docu-
mentaries. He said: “Every single rain-
drop that falls from the sky relieves the
parched ground. What if every single
one of us was a raindrop, and if every
single one of us cared?”
Speaking about his son Archie, now
19 months, he added: “The moment you
become a father, everything really does
change because then you start to
realise, well, what is the point in bring-
ing a new person into this world when
they get to your age and it’s on fire?”Valentine Low