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ONE AMBITION: TO IMPROVE THE WELL-BEING OF ALL
1. The Group and its environment
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SAINT-GOBAIN
- REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2016
THE CHALLENGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
1.2
assessed; the Stern
(1)
report, which provides a benchmark,
showed that the cost of doing nothing outweighs the cost of
a coordinated plan to reduce climate change.
Twenty-five years after the first report from the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the
extent of the problem of global warming has now been fully
levels. To achieve this target, there is an immediate need to
reduce emissions growth by one-third between 2010 and
2030, compared with the previous two decades
(2)
.
greenhouse gas emitters. It sets the stringent goal of keeping
the increase in temperature to below 2°C above pre-industrial
After more than 20 years of negotiations and as a matter of
urgency, governments have therefore decided to commit to
quantified targets for greenhouse gas reduction. The Paris
Agreement, which came into force on November 4, 2015, was
ratified by China and the United States, the world’s biggest
buildings could reduce this increase to just 10%
(4)
of current
energy consumption. Building energy efficiency therefore
presents many opportunities to address global warming,
although public opinion must continue to be made aware of
this. Today, though, the primary trigger for renovation work is
to increase the comfort of the home. Under these conditions,
combining residential comfort and energy efficiency is a
major lever for action to combat climate change.
practices in the design, construction and operation of
In the private sector, there are a number of levers for action
to reduce our environmental footprint: in Europe, the building
sector alone accounts for 40% of final energy consumption
and 35% of greenhouse gas emissions
(3)
. Globally, building
energy consumption could double or even triple by 2050
(4)
if
nothing is done. However, the full use of current best
environmental impact of the building as a whole, from the
extraction of raw materials to demolition and recycling. The
reuse of materials generates additional economic growth and
limits resource usage and emissions. By expanding this kind
of approach, greater economic affluence can be decoupled
from the use of resources.
Furthermore, with increasing frequency, public policies are
adopting a life cycle approach, which considers the
Economic output
Resource use
No decoupling
RESOURCE USE GROWS AT LEAST AS RAPIDLY
AS ECONOMIC OUTPUT.
Time
Relative decoupling
RESOURCE USE GROWS LESS RAPIDLY
THAN ECONOMIC OUTPUT.
Absolute decoupling
RESOURCE USE DECLINES WHILE ECONOMIC
OUTPUT GROWS.
Source: European Environment Agency
(5)
Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, 2006.
(1)
Synthesis report on the aggregate effect of the intended nationally determined contributions, UNFCC, October 2015.
(2)
Energy Union Package: A Framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change Policy, European Commission
(3)
Communication, 2015.
Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change, contribution from Working Group III of the Fifth IPCC Assessment Report (AR5), 2014.
(4)
The European Environment: State and outlook 2015 – Synthesis report, European Environment Agency.
(5)