Expect dramatic climate changes says King

Speaking at the CIBSE National Conference in September, the Government’s chief scientific advisor said the world is already experiencing global warming. King said that a rise in the world’s temperature of 2.7°C would trigger irreversible events such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet which could see eventual sea level rises in the region of 6m to 7m. King said that such events, and some of those that have already occurred can be attributed to global warming due to CO₂ emissions. “We need to acknowledge that the inertia in the climate change system is such that if we were stop emissions of carbon dioxide today we would still have growing problems over the next twenty years unabated.” While there is a need to mitigate against the changes in the climate that are already guaranteed to happen as a result of global warming, King also said the built environment needs to improve energy efficiency standards to leave future generations a world they can live in.

He stressed that the UK needs to catch up with countries like Denmark and the Netherlands in terms of its chp use, and that different experiments in the construction industry, such as London’s ‘Gherkin’ building are needed to drive the industry forward. “Energy efficiency gains are the big win-win ahead of us and building services engineers can make a difference to that area. We need improvements in building design in the UK that can match up to best practice internationally and then set new standards. We are going to see in the next twenty years a need for a massive cultural change across many of our otherwise accepted behavioural patterns. Lower running costs will be the payback over time, and this message must be conveyed to your customers.”