With the historic climate agreement reached in Paris at COP21, what implications will it have on the architecture, engineering and design industries? Doggerel spoke to U.S. Green Building Council Chair-elect Fiona Cousins for her perspective.
From your perspective, what are the most important aspects of the agreement?
The most important thing is that there is an agreement. There is now a framework against which commitments have been made, and commitments have been made by almost all countries.
In the past the negotiations have always become stuck on the idea that developed economies needed to make commitments and carry out regular audits while developing economies like China and India did not. The argument was that developed nations have had enormous benefits from carbon emission-intensive development and that developing nations must be allowed the same opportunity.
FULL STORY: Cautious optimism in the wake of COP21

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