By Dan Walsh
Enniscorthy International Forum’s Chief Executive Cllr Barbara-Anne Murphy and Commissioner Darcie Houck, California Public Utilities Commission were amongst the attendees at the Enniscorthy International Forum Regional Summit held in Santa Monica, California in early October. The Regional Summit was organised in conjunction with California based The Energy Coalition.
The summit was conducted under the auspices of the UN-affiliated Buildings Action Coalition. The gathering generated a robust dialogue around policies and actions to address the climate challenge while securing quality of life aspirations.
Craig Perkins, President and Executive Director of The Energy Coalition, noted that “a fundamental transformation of our energy system cannot be mandated, engineered, or imagined – it must be accepted as a significantly better outcome that is DESIRED, ACCESSIBLE, and URGENT.”
Cllr Barbara-Anne Murphy is Chief Executive Officer of the Enniscorthy International Forum, an Irish NGO that serves as the secretariat for the Buildings Action Coalition under the terms of a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Environment Programme.
She observed that “getting buildings and the built environment right is the one thing that can deliver important, impactful results in a relevant timeframe. We don’t need to wait for new technology – we have the capital, and we have the know-how to make a real difference in the performance of buildings.”
Key takeaways from the summit included that:
1. Improving building performance is a critical facet of any realistic transformation path.
2. Delivering energy services efficiently will make supply decarbonisation easier.
3. Raising the performance of buildings requires deep retrofit of existing buildings and
construction of new buildings to the highest available standards.
4. There is scant evidence that the political will exists to drive the needed paradigm shift.
5. Success will require engagement at the level of individuals and communities/neighbourhoods.
6. Collaboration among communities can disseminate the change and accelerate its pace.
7. The arc of social progress is faltering. Raising building performance can create opportunities for workforce development and improved quality of life.
8. Higher education has not been reconceived at the depth and scale required.
For more information, please contact Cllr Barbara-Anne Murphy at +353 87 673 6966 or Marc Costa at +1 949 732 1078.
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