Reducing Karachi Buildings Carbon Emission - Assignment Example

Environmental studies 30th September Report: How Sindh Building Control ity (SBCA) can reduce Karachi buildings’ carbon emission Introduction The purpose of this report is to explain to the city authority regarding how Karachi can reduce its carbon emissions from buildings to attain sustainability. Sustainability has different kinds which include social, economic and environmental sustainability. Sustain means to continue, preserve or conserve (Morelli). Environmental Sustainability is defined as the ability to “maintain natural capital”. On high-level NGO representative has warned that some of the major cities such as Karachi and Singapore along with Maldives could get flooded by the sea soon if extreme actions are not taken to reduce carbon emissions. According to Babar Khan, the regional head of World Wide Fund for Nature(WWF), the global warming in these areas has caused increase sea level by one meter, and this can increase further if measures are not taken rapidly to resolve the problem (Karachi Digest). Karachi is one of the largest cities in the world. It is the major seaport and financial hub of Pakistan. The city has around 21 million people (Khan). Karachi has 60 high rise buildings and 9 skyscrapers (Emporis). Throughout this world, the buildings are responsible for around 40% of carbon dioxide release. Carbon dioxide is the major cause of greenhouse effect and global warming (Dawn). This report will further discuss why and how carbon emissions need to be reduced by individuals and the city authority, followed by a conclusion. The importance of cities for sustainability "Its obvious where the fight for a sustainable civilization will be decided, and thats in large cities” - Peter Loescher, CEO, Siemens “There will be no sustainable world without sustainable cities” (Masdar). Currently what humans are doing is using non-renewable sources of energy such as biofuels for energy generation. Since, little use is being made of renewable sources of energy and the general level of consumption of materials is far exceeding their production, while the environment which favors the production is being ruined by consumption. The time will come when the world will run out of resources. Buildings, which are usually found in much greater number of cities, are responsible for carbon emissions, and since 50% of the world’s population lives in cities and this can increase to 70% by 2030 one can expect the increase in amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere higher than ever before (UNFPA). An increase in carbon dioxide causes heat to get trapped into the atmosphere. As a result, the overall temperature of the Earth rises and causes phenomena known as global warming. While the global temperature is changing so are the climate and the melting of glaciers and icebergs. As a result, the sea level is rising and chances of flooding by sea, hurricanes, droughts and heat waves have increased (Torchbox). Why Karachi should reduce carbon emissions from buildings and how this will contribute to sustainability? Karachi is a major seaport of Pakistan and it has so many buildings that there are no official figures for their number. As it is seen before, buildings account for more than 40 percent of carbon emissions and these emissions cause global warming which can lead to flooding by the sea. It is vital for Karachi to take strong measures for the construction of green buildings and improvement of the existing ones. Reduction in carbon emissions from buildings will reduce the drastic changes in climate of Karachi and adjacent areas hence decreasing heat waves, reducing amount of precious land covered by the Arabian Sea, and allowing the citizens to breathe air with more oxygen. Furthermore, decrease of carbon emissions from buildings requires one to reduce usage of electricity hence eliminating the need for more electricity generation. This will ensure that citizens live healthily due to breathing fresher air and continue to work at the pace they want without any load shedding of electricity. When electricity is there for use, factories will be able to produce goods on a regular basis and people will buy those goods for use. The same factories will pay more taxes to the government hence enabling infrastructure development and giving greater subsidies to farmers for growing crops and fishermen to do fishing. As a result, the level of consumption will become closer to the level of production and non-renewable resources will not be exhausted while generating electricity by burning fossil fuels. This is what sustainability is about. Why the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) should have an important role in reducing carbon emissions from buildings in Karachi? It is SBCA’s responsibility to ensure that building developers are following “Master Plan and Environmental Control (Building & Town Planning) Regulations, given legal cover under SBCO 1979” (KBCA). Furthermore, SBCA is responsible for approving building plans and structural designs. If constructors do not follow the plan, then SCBA can take actions against such constructors, Also, if the public has some complaints against constructors, then SBCA is responsible for resolving them. What SCBA can do is to get legal cover on techniques and strategies that must be adopted by constructors in order to construct green buildings. Once this has been done, any constructor found violating these regulations must be heavily fined or sent to prison. From here onwards is the proposal for SBCA to reduce carbon emissions from buildings. Proposal The proposal will discuss how carbon emissions from buildings in Karachi can be reduced, how this will benefit everybody, how such measures can be implemented by SBCA and what the limitations of implementation are. How carbon emissions from buildings can be reduced in Karachi? The following are some of the many ways by which the aforementioned could be done: Use a programmable temperature controller to prevent running heater and air conditioner unnecessarily. Such thermostats cost about $50, however this money spent can be usually regained by saving energy and reducing electricity bill. Utilize low-carbon aluminum and concrete mixes for constructing buildings. This is what has been done in Abu Dhabi while constructing Masdar City. Install weather stripping around windows and doors from which cool air is being released from homes and offices. Constructors should add more insulation to roofs so that the need for both cooling and heating decreases. As a result, less air conditioning is needed. Tint windows from both sides and use external shades in the hot climate of Karachi. This will minimize the amount of sun light entering into any room. When sunlight enters less into one room, the room temperature remains lower and hence the need for using air conditioners decreases. As a result, need for electricity generation falls. Since most of the electricity supplied to Karachi is generated via burning of fossil fuels which produces carbon dioxide, this is an effective way to reduce indirectly carbon emissions from buildings. Real-estate developers should stop using tube lights for illuminating their newly constructed buildings and gaining attention of people looking for new homes. Instead, they must replace tube lights with energy saving compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). These consume less electricity hence decreasing the need for burning fossil fuels for electricity generation. Individuals living in old buildings should take initiative to replace all tube lights with energy savers. Energy savers consume 75% less energy and last 10 times longer than tube lights. Moreover, real-estate developers are now selling fully furnished apartments which have geysers installed in them. These geysers run on gas and so are the source of carbon emission. To reduce carbon emission, geysers can be wrapped in a fiberglass blanket and secured with duct tape. Also, insulated hot water pipes must be used to minimize heat loss as the hot water flows. It has been observed that Pakistan is running out of gas, so constructors installing standby generators which run on gas are making an enormous mistake. Not only do these consume gas which could be used by other industries in the country for more important activities like fertilizer production (Pakistan has an agrarian economy and so fertilizer can be used for economic development), but also the burning of gas releases immense amount of carbon monoxide due to insufficient oxygen. These gas generators are being installed inside the buildings rather than on rooftops or in open areas, hence a shortage of oxygen results in incomplete combustion of gas which produces Carbon Monoxide. Carbon Monoxide combines with Hemoglobin in blood to reduce its oxygen carrying capacity almost permanently. All real-estate developers should be banned from using gas generators and whoever installs them should be heavily fined while such generators must be taken by the police into custody. Instead of gas generators constructors must install windmills on rooftops and solar panels that use renewable sources of energy for generation of electricity during load shedding carried out by the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation. Moreover, real-estate developers alone are not responsible for reducing carbon emissions from buildings. The residents of these buildings are equally responsible, too. People should preferably use energy-efficient electronic appliances which have an "Energy Star" label. Such devices need less energy for doing their job hence resulting in lower electricity bills and lower fossil fuels combustion. Likewise, electronic appliances like computers and TVs must not be kept on stand-by and cell phone chargers must be unplugged if not in use. Furthermore, parents should inculcate in their children the habit of switching off light and fans in rooms when they are unoccupied. If one uses computers frequently in an office or at home he or she should leave it on stand-by. Consequently, computers can be restarted quickly and less energy is utilized comparing with shutting down and then restarting. Individuals can also place plants indoors and water them regularly. Plants have proven to use carbon dioxide in the process of photosynthesis to generate oxygen. Plants can help reduce the greenhouse effect. Schools should teach this to their students, and universities should have societies which organize events for creating awareness regarding environment sustainability and reduction of carbon emissions from homes. How should SCBA ensure that the above suggestions are implemented? The SCBA can establish a call center where people can call anonymously to complain about lack of measures being taken by a specific real-estate developer in any area. Law enforcement teams must be sent to such construction sites and the real-estate developers must be interrogated and fined heavily if proven guilty of disobeying regulations of SCBA. Secondly, random checks must be conducted by teams of SCBA in order to know who is not following regulations regarding reducing carbon emissions. If a real-estate developer does not follow regulations he should be arrested and fined heavily. Thirdly, not issuing NOCs for sale and advertising of construction projects to projects constructed by real-estate developers if they fail to comply with environmental regulations can prove to be effective in implementing the above strategy. Limitations and disadvantages of implementation of proposed points There are corrupt people in both SCBA and real-estate development who will give and accept bribes to escape following environmental regulations. The possible reason for not implementing the aforementioned suggestions could be higher construction costs in the short run. If buyers of buildings observe that environmental regulations are being ignored they can always complain to SCBA or the police which can then enquire from SCBA why it failed to ensure that real-estate developer followed all regulations. If bribe has been accepted, corrupt individuals can be caught and arrested. Conclusion Implementing measures to reduce carbon emissions from buildings can not only reduce global warming and its consequences, but also bring along specific advantages like conservation of electricity and pleasant air to breath. Steps such as insulating water pipes, installing weathering strips and energy savers seem initially expensive but prove to be both economical and durable in the long run. Constructors must think in the same way, and soon when people live in their buildings they will appreciate the constructors enough for their friends and family to buy apartments in buildings made by same constructors. As a result, sustainability and long term profitability will increase. Total word count: 2005 Bibliography Attari, Shahzeen Z., et al. "Public perceptions of energy consumption and savings." PNAS (2010): 16054–16059. Dawn. Karachi`s need for green buildings. n.d. 29 September 2012 < http://archives.dawn.com/archives/29629 >. Dietz, Thomas, et al. "Household actions can provide a behavioral wedge to rapidly reduce US carbon emissions." Proceedings Of The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 11 September 2009: 2009. Emporis. Karachi. 2012. 29 September 2012 . Karachi Digest. Karachi Digest. 2012. 29 September 2012 . KBCA. Introduction. n.d. 30 September 2012 . Khan, Abdul Sattar. 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