What is COP?

COP is a summit run by the UN, COP stands for ‘Conference of Parties’ and these yearly summits have been running since 1995. The stated aim of these events is to accelerate climate action globally, reducing emissions and transitioning to a more sustainable way of life. At COP21 in 2015, for example, the Paris Agreement was signed. It should come as no surprise that every COP is more urgent than the last, as targets are missed or extended. The topics and subjects covered at COP are broad and include everything from curbing the use of fossil fuels to encouraging ‘green’ finance. Governments are not the only attendees at these event as they are an excellent opportunity for NGO’s and sustainable business to showcase innovative solutions and technologies.

Why it matters

Anyone with any sense will agree that climate change is an existential challenge facing everyone on this planet. Current trends suggest that we will easily exceed the stated 1.5-degree temperature rise goal of the Paris agreement. COP is one of the biggest drivers to accelerate change in order to make sure we don’t pass that mark and head into catastrophe. COP27 is not without its controversies however; many high-profile climate activists see it as a way for Government’s and powerful corporations to greenwash the agenda. That is to say, do very little whilst making a lot of performative statements to the contrary. Regardless, there are few events on the subject climate change which draw anywhere close to the amount of investment and publicity as COP.

How Halcyan fits in

You may be wondering why we at Halcyan are even discussing COP27? After all we are just a small UK business and we certainly aren’t going to present at the event in Egypt. However we feel very strongly about sustainability issues and one of our biggest drivers is to help tackle emissions in the UK by dealing with a little known contributor to the problem, limescale. Water also happens to be a key topic at COP with its own Pavilion.

Final Thoughts:

We hope that if You’re unfamiliar with COP this article has helped shed a little light. If you’d like to no more there’s no better place than the COP27 official website. If you’d like to learn more about Halcyan and how we help reduce carbon then why not check out our explainer page below!

The Unknown Issue

Hard water is a frustrating fact of life for most of the UK. It damages expensive equipment, makes bathrooms and kitchens look grotty and unappealing and can even dry out skin and hair. But sadly there is another much more serious aspect of limescale which is not well known. From homeowners all the way to the head policy makers in government. That is the effect that limescale has on sustainability and the environment. Limescale doesn’t just damage heating elements over time but severely reduces their efficiency meaning more carbon released into the atmosphere every time you heat up your water.

In this article we’ll take a look at how limescale and hard water impact sustainability and the solutions to the problem.

The Water Pavilion

It may come as a surprise to hear that COP26 is the first COP to have a dedicated Water pavilion. Due to the frightening circumstances we find ourselves in, more than 30 of the biggest water organisations across the world have collaborated to bring the challenges facing our water supply to the forefront. Some of the key organisers include the IUCN and SIWI to name just a few. Torgny Holmgren, Executive Director of SIWI had this to say about the Water Pavilion: “The climate crisis is primarily a water crisis. To a large extent, we experience global warming in the form of too much or too little water, as floods or droughts. But few countries are aware of how much they can gain from focusing more on water in their climate action, and that is what we want to change with the first-ever Water Pavilion.”

The pavilion runs livestreams of the various sessions, so if you are interested why not check out the agenda and have a watch?

The Key Topics

Obviously the topic of water is as vast as the oceans themselves, but where climate change is involved there are some key areas of focus.

The first is mitigation. What can policy makers do to reduce the strain on our water supplies and prevent future strain where possible

The second resilience, as the climate changes the burden on water supplies will increase drastically, especially when we rake into account that many renewable energy sources require a lot of water to produce. So how do policy makers help to preserve and maintain the water that we have currently to meet the needs of the future?

The third is adaptation. There will be many situations where we can not mitigate the impacts of climate change and our water resources aren’t resilient enough to cope. So how do we adapt to this? What changes do we need to make so that we are still able to function effectively in our new reality?

These are of course broad-brush themes and within each of these are much more detailed topics being covered throughout the summit. Here at Halcyan we’re particularly in the intersection of water and energy.

Where does Halcyan fit?

So where does Halcyan fit into the conversation? We are after all a small business with a small product (one of its selling points in fact!). The answer is of course hard water. Across the world areas are supplied by hard water, hard water in turn produces limescale which, over time significantly reduces the efficiency of heating elements. Not only does energy usage increase in areas suffering from hard water but so does waste. When elements and equipment become scaled up they are scrapped more often than not.

Halcyan and systems like it take limescale out of the equation. This means less energy and materials are wasted in both domestic and commercial contexts. It is estimated that a household can save 0.5 tonnes of carbon a year with a Halcyan fitted. Multiply that by the millions in Britain alone and our small contribution starts to add up!

Final Thoughts:

Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative! Stay tuned for more COP26 coverage and more helpful blogs tackling all sorts of water related topics! If you’d like to know more about how Halcyan tackles limescale then please check out our system explained page linked below!

What is COP 26?

COP is a UN run summit which aims to bring together representatives from almost all nations on earth to tackle climate change. COP stands for ‘Conference of the Parties’ and these conferences have been running annually since 1995. The upcoming COP will be the 26th session since these events were started, hence the title COP26. The aim of these summits is to devise agreements, treaties and goals in the fight against climate change. The Paris agreement of 2015 was drawn up at COP21 for example. You may have noticed that most previous COPs didn’t generate as much press as COP26.

What is different about COP26?

The sense of urgency around climate change has shifted into another gear entirely since the Paris agreement. The goal of the Paris agreement was to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees C. The current global trajectory is well and dangerously beyond that mark. The effects of climate change are now more obvious than ever with frequent record breaking extreme weather events in countries across the globe. For many COP26 is seen as our last real chance to get our emissions under control.

What to expect from the Summit.

Under the Paris agreement signatories agrees to draft plans, detailing the extent they would curb their emission and how they would set about doing so. These plans were know as Nationally Determined Contributions or ‘NDCs’. An important part of the NDCs was the agreement that they would be revisited and updated in 5 years. The 5 years are up and COP26 is the event where we should hope to see some very ambitious targets declared by many of the key polluting countries.

The UK, which is running the conference has also stated that there are 3 additional areas which will be focused on along with the overarching goal of reducing emissions to meet the 1.5 target.

The first is climate finance, as part of COP 15 in Copenhagen poor countries were promised $100bn a year to tackle climate issues by 2020. The target was not met and developing countries are pushing to receive the rest of the funds along with an expansion in finance going forward.

The second is the total phase out of coal, this is an essential step to remaining under 1.5C. Many countries including China, India and Australia all still consume and produce significant amounts of coal. Convincing these nations to drop their reliance on coal will be one of the big pushes of the event.

Finally there will be a focus on nature based solutions to climate change. These include more focus on protecting and expanding existing natural carbon sinks such as forests, wetlands and peatlands. The Amazon rainforest will be an area of particular focus as one of the worlds largest carbon sinks which is under considerable threat.

Final Thoughts:

We hope that you have a better understanding of COP26 and why it matters. Whilst watching the summit live may be a bit keen we would certainly urge you to follow the outcomes of the event as the decisions made here will have a significant impact on your and all of our futures! If you’d like to know more about how you can help reduce your homes carbon footprint please read our article below on carbon saving changes you can make to your home.

How will the target be met?

Almost every aspect of our day to day lives involves a significant output of greenhouse gases. At a first glance meeting this target may seem almost like an impossibility. But as of July 2019 the UK has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 42% while expanding the economy by 72%. In order to deliver on this target the government is electing to deal with the 6 major contributors to UK emissions: Transport, Energy, Domestic Housing, Agriculture, Waste Management and Industrial processes.

Overhauling these sectors with sustainability in mind, both retroactively and in future, is the key to hitting that target. An example that is related to our business, is the domestic housing market. New builds must meet part L of the building regulations which refers to the conservation of fuel and power in the building. Retrofitting old and inefficient buildings is also emerging as a key strategy. There are several innovative products and components which are aimed at this market with sustainability in mind including our own. If you’d like to read more about how treating limescale helps with energy efficiency please head here.

What is next?

Whilst encouraging steps have been made in the right direction it is clear that much more needs to be done.  The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) released a progress report in July 2019 and stated that the UK government’s policy actions were not nearly sufficient in meeting the 2050 net zero target. Whilst a lot of progress has been made in the Energy sector it is transport, residential housing and business which need to see significant changes and reductions. Whilst carbon capture and offsetting schemes have proven popular as a means to dealing with a large portion of UK emissions this will not be enough and more radical policies are needed and quickly.

We should be proud of our commitment to our ambitious goal to reach net zero carbon by 2050. But we also need to ensure that we do not come up short. In future we will be releasing articles going into more detail about specific policies, focused primarily on the domestic housing sector, as this is where our business fits into the conversation. We will also occasionally indulge ourselves and explore other areas of the drive to sustainability on occasion as well.

What are the SDG’s?

The sustainable development goals (SDG’s) also known as global goals are a collection of international targets set in 2015. They aim to produce egalitarian and sustainable societies the world over by 2030. There are 17 goals in total but there is significant overlap and integration between them. For example goal number 1 is to end poverty, goal number 4 is to ensure quality, inclusive and equitable education for all, which helps to achieve the aims of goal 1. The image below shows all the current sustainable development goals.

How are they being met?

193 governments have ratified the SDG’s. They have also taken steps to implement polices to try and reach the goals by 2030. NGO’s and private enterprise can also commit to supporting the sustainable development goals. Companies such as Hewlett Packard, Unilever, Levi Strauss and many others are committing to meeting strict climate targets for example . The UN Division for Sustainable Development Goals provides support and coordination to the various organisations pursuing the SDG’s.

A lot of progress towards the Sustainable development goals. But much more needs to be done to meet the 2030 target. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a severe setbacks to the 2030 target. In response, the UN has brought in SDG accelerated actions encouraging more urgent and swift initiatives to achieve local aims. 152 major actions have already been taken by countries and stakeholders in this regard.

What next?

The sustainable development goals are key to achieving a sustainable and fairer future. We’ll likely be taking a look at the individual goals in more detail in future but until then we highly urge you to take a look at the SDG website and to keep an eye out for businesses and organisations which contribute towards reaching these very ambitious goals and to give these organisations your support!