ICE President Paul Jowitt launched the latest State of the Nation: Low Carbon Infrastructure report today.
The report explains why infrastructure, alongside behaviour change and political action is fundamental to creating a low carbon society. The report concludes that to meet ambitious carbon targets, new and existing transport, energy, waste and water networks need to be adapted and developed to minimise emissions and highlights the role this infrastructure has to play in changing individual and collective behaviours.
ICE President Paul Jowitt said: “Delivering cuts in emissions on the scale needed and within the time restraints that exist will require radical changes in behaviour and society. However public behaviour is restricted by the choices available to them. We need to transform the infrastructure that makes up the fabric of society and underpins economic activity so that the only choices we make are low carbon ones.”
In the long-term delivering low carbon infrastructure needs a systems approach so that emissions can be managed across the entire inter-related network. For example, transport, water and waste systems are all powered by our energy grid so decarbonising electricity production would reduce emissions across the board.
The report highlights examples of successful interventions that have already significantly changed behaviour, such as the impact of Landfill Tax in slowing the growth of waste and increasing recycling and reuse.
It also identifies a wide range of infrastructure solutions that could be delivered on the scale needed, but a public, political and professional consensus on priorities and their effectiveness in abating emissions is needed.
To read the report in full or find out more, please visit the State of the Nation section of the site.