Matthew Morris

How long should a building last? Concerns about embodied carbon are increasing the impetus to design architecture that stands the test of time. But just how long should we expect a building to last? Nat Barker reports.

www.dezeen.com/2025/12/17/h...

Designing for long life isn’t about predicting the future, it’s about flexibility, repair and accepting we don’t control what survives.

The built environment is full of complex, interconnected problems and never fully solved.

That’s where foresight matters. Not prediction, but ways to understand uncertainty, test futures, and make better decisions.

Design needs to think further ahead.

#BuiltEnvironment #FutureCities #Strategy

Absolutely! We can see this trend in other areas too. In this instance the built environment and construction sector in the UK.

bsky.app/profile/matt...

Ecology rules are an upstream carbon control. Remove them, and emissions rise long before homes are occupied!

Procurement helps, but doesn’t transform on its own!
Circular criteria are increasingly embedded, yet delivery risk, cost and programme certainty still dominate decisions.

#Procurement #Construction #PublicSector #CircularEconomy

Conservatives would end 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars Party would also abolish zero-emission vehicle mandate, cutting legal requirement on carmakers to sell EVs

The Conservatives are threatening to abandon the phaseout date for petrol and diesel cars should they win the next election

There are so many reasons this is an awful idea you wonder whether any thought has been involved

Let me run through them 🧵🧵 1/7

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This is classic stop–start politics weaponising the net zero agenda. What industry needs isn’t last-minute concessions, but long-term certainty and policy stability.

The Circular Economy Monitor: An Outline | Website Onderzoek en Statistiek The Circular Economy Monitor shows that material use in Amsterdam is higher than previously thought. Material use is currently still increasing.

#Amsterdam is one of the first cities globally that can even say whether material use is going up or down. Most cities (including UK ones) still can’t.

onderzoek.amsterdam.nl/publicatie/t...

#CircularEconomy #MaterialUse #UrbanPolicy

The carbon market wrongly separates risk from reward. We don’t insure buildings without fire safety and we shouldn’t insure carbon without transition.

#carbonmarkets #climatefiance

‘Food and fossil fuel production causing $5bn of environmental damage an hour’ UN GEO report says ending this harm key to global transformation required ‘before collapse becomes inevitable’

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

At the end of the day, the cost of action is far lower than the cost of inaction. The UN GEO report lays out staggering figures.

$45tn a year in environmental damage!

#ClimateCrisis #SystemChange

You can see this in energy prices too. When people feel worse off, votes shift and energy bills are one of the most emotionally and economically charged drivers of that. Retrofit is political as much as climate, unfortunately.

#RetrofitFirst #EnergySecurity #CostOfLiving #PoliticalEconomy

The heat isn't going away. 2025 on track to tie second warmest year ever

Climate change is generating food-price inflation in Europe, catastrophic flooding in south-east Asia

Likely this warmth will continue into next year with further impacts. It may be permanent

www.ft.com/content/9e0e...

The People’s COP as Belém’s legacy - Greenpeace International Even though the results of the negotiations fell short, the mobilisation of different groups and peoples placed civil society participation at COP30 on another level.

#COP30 ended without any of the breakthroughs the planet needs but people power continued to push for real climate action. What happened outside of COP is Belém’s legacy.

More >> act.gp/4iGvica

6/6 Aggregation is where circularity becomes investable. Bristol City Leap proves it 30k buildings as one system, not 30k projects.
Bundle retrofit + heat + reuse + nature → pilots become pipelines,
and circularity becomes asset protection, not an experiment.

#GreenFinance #FutureOfInfrastructure

5/6 Stability is undervalued but it’s the real unlock.

Stop-start funding undermines supply chains, slows adoption and erodes confidence.

A cross-party approach linking retrofit → reuse → grid decarbonisation would give investors and the public clarity.

#Infrastructure #ClimateFinance

4/6 Net zero, nature and circularity aren’t separate missions, they are one ecosystem.

Policy must reflect this as a single economic + risk framework rather than parallel strategies competing for attention.

Integration isn’t optional it’s foundational.

#SystemsThinking #Circularity

3/6 National policy still feels fragmented and fragmentation slows delivery.

Energy, housing, circularity and nature are still treated as separate priorities.

We can’t transform a system by managing it in pieces.

#Policy #NetZero

2/6 Devolution is one of the strongest enablers we have.

Where regions control budgets, they can align housing, energy and social outcomes into coherent, place-based programmes.

Manchesters devolution deal shows the model others are now tracking.

#Devolution #PlaceBased

1/6 Casting an eye across the sector, it’s clear that emerging trends are becoming usable tools and not concepts. If we want the Circular Economy to scale, we need two structural levers: policy that integrates + finance that aggregates.

This is where momentum is forming

👇

#systemchange

A climate deal without phaseout language is like a fire safety plan that avoids saying “put the fire out.” #cop30

▶️ WATCH: Ministers from Colombia and the Netherlands announce their joint Conference for the Phaseout of Fossil Fuels 🔥

I couldn't agree more w/ my colleague Johan Rockström here:
amp.theguardian.com/environment/...

Which countries are banning fossil fuel boilers?

EU governments must plan for a complete phase-out of fossil fuel boilers by 2040.

Many European countries are already well on their way.

Here's our latest overview:

ehpa.org/news-and-res...

Overall totals for delegates from parties, observers and the media for all COPs, as published by the UNFCCC (see this article for more details on the data). Data for COPs 1-29 are the “final” figures, while COP30 data is “provisional”. Chart by Carbon Brief.

NEW – Analysis: Which countries have sent the most delegates to COP30? | @rtmcswee.carbonbrief.org Ho Woo Nam

Read here: buff.ly/I5pUBHu

Illustration of a dart missing the bullseye on a colorful target, symbolizing global temperature goals at risk due to inaction.

New national climate plans have barely moved the needle on limiting global warming. Yet there is hope.

According to UNEP's latest #EmissionsGap Report, accelerated adoption of renewable energy and falling costs mean we have the tools to cut emissions now: www.unep.org/news-and-sto...

As the UK shapes its new Circular Economy Strategy, prevention shouldn’t be an afterthought — it’s where we begin: by designing out waste before it’s created.

Source: DEFRA — UK Statistics on Waste (2010–2016)

Recovery rates looked fine, but something more important slipped — prevention.

Less planning. Less accountability. More extraction, transport, emissions.

Guidance alone doesn’t drive change — policy does.

When Site Waste Management Plans were scrapped in 2013, waste went up — not down.

📊 DEFRA data shows construction & demolition waste rose nearly 20% in just four years.

#CircularEconomy #WastePrevention #NetZero ##CircularEconomyTaskforce

Daily Briefing: Renewables overtake coal | Conservatives’ climate fight | World’s heat records

➡️ Read today's full briefing here: buff.ly/Urxlytb

➡️ Sign up to our email briefings: buff.ly/3kFciAO