Climate Emergency Committee

Headline Purpose

Chaired by Ben James, the purpose of this committee is to help radically reduce our built environment’s contribution to climate change and to help prepare for the impacts of climate change on Northern Ireland.

How this purpose will be achieved

• Propose two lists of actions that should be taken in relation to our built environment: (i) Actions to make climate change less severe, and; (ii) Actions to prepare for the impacts of climate change on Northern Ireland
• Develop more detailed RSUA position papers on addressing climate change through the design of Northern Ireland’s built environment
• Engage with devolved and local government including DAERA (Climate Change), Department of Finance (building regulations and procurement), Department for Infrastructure (planning and transport), Department for Communities (housing policy and urban regeneration) and the 11 local councils.
• Prepare RSUA’s response to relevant consultations
• Provide a collective expert view on climate matters relating to the built environment when called upon
• Engage and co-ordinate with other bodies in Northern Ireland and beyond who seek to address climate change including Climate NI, PCAN, Irish Green Building Council, Universities etc.
• Propose opportunities for learning, particularly for architects and university students, in relation to climate change. For example, topics and expert speakers for training events, resources for architects and building tours.

Public benefit

The public will benefit by having a built environment which is better prepared for the impacts of climate change and the public will be better informed about what changes we need to make to our built environment to radically reduce our contribution to climate change.

Meeting frequency/pre-arranged dates

This committee will meet quarterly, from 12.30pm until 2pm on the following dates:

• 12.30pm on Wednesday 12 March 2025
• 12.30pm on Wednesday 7 May 2025
• 12.30pm on Wednesday 20 August 2025
• 12.30pm on Wednesday 5 November 2025

Other meetings will be scheduled as required between the standing meetings and working groups will be formed to take forward specific actions.

Membership and contact details

Climate Emergency Committee Chair, Ben James james-b1@ulster.ac.uk

*not a qualified architect, but is an architectural professional

Involvement

RSUA members interested in joining this committee should contact Jude Faloon by emailing jude@rsua.org.uk

Find out more

Read some of the most up to date and relevant RSUA news articles relating to the Climate Emergency Committee by click here.

Useful Resources

• List of recommended retrofit guidance documents for architects who are undertaking retrofit projects. This list was compiled by the Retrofit Guidance Subgroup. The subgroup is still accepting comments or feedback on this list so please get in touch with Jude Faloon by emailing jude@rsua.org.uk if there are any other documents that you think should be included on the list.
• PassiveHaus Trust:  training opportunities, design guide, carbon counting tools and case studies
• Edinburgh Home Demonstrator, Route Map in Housing to 2040: New design guide to transform Scotland’s approach to affordable housing. The route map aims to significantly reduce carbon emissions of homes and those associated with the construction of housing
• Architects Climate Action Network’s (ACAN) climate emergency conservation area toolkit: This toolkit aims to provide a methodology to update Conservation Area guidance which will allow more complete climate emergency retrofitting.
• NIHE Journey to retrofit: A Review of a pilot scheme to improve the energy efficiency of social housing
• Ten-year performance assessment of the UK’s first affordable PassivHaus scheme: The assessment of 14 PassivHaus homes built in 2011 is the first to consider PassivHaus performance over an extended period of time in the UK.
• Climate Change Committee (CCC) & Arup report on addressing overheating risk in existing UK homes: CCC commissioned Arup to appraise the current and future risks posed by summertime overheating to the UK housing stock at scale, published in October 2022
• RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment for the Built Environment 2nd Edition:  Measure whole-life carbon emissions, manage carbon budgets, reduce life cycle emissions and deliver a net zero future for the built environment, published in November 2023
• Embodied carbon regulation – alignment of industry policy recommendations: policy position paper calling on party leaders to reduce embodied carbon emissions in building construction within two years of taking office, published in January 2024
• RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge Resources: a collections in resources from RIBA and their partners is designed to support you in taking the RIBA 2023 Climate Challenge
• UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard: the UK’s first cross-industry net zero carbon buildings standard that brings together net zero requirements for all major building types, published in December 2023
• Built Environment Carbon Database: Developed in partnership with organisations operating across every part of the construction sector, the Built Environment Carbon Database is designed to become the main source of carbon estimating and benchmarking for the industry.

Engagement

If you or your organisation wishes to engage with the RSUA Climate Emergency Committee, please contact Jude Faloon on jude@rsua.org.uk