Social Sciences

Question; Write a report for an authority of a city or town making the case for a more sustainable city or town by reducing carbon emissions from buildings. Your report should include advice on how to reduce carbon emissions from buildings.

Belfast; Building Sustainability and Pride by reducing Carbon emissions.
The purpose of this report is to present Belfast City Council with a proposal to reduce carbon emissions within the city and develop a more sustainable environment in relation to its buildings. Cities are environments built to meet the social-economic needs of people and have tended to be developed in unsustainable ways without consideration of environmental concerns; Belfast is no different in this respect. As the capital city of Northern Ireland, it has suffered greatly in the preceding years from the ‘troubles’ through to the economic downturn but our ‘wee city’ can be seen as resilient and adaptable to its circumstances. Environmental concerns give it a platform to facilitate growth and become a beacon of progress in sustainable living. These measures also have the effect of helping its people to take civic pride in their achievements and promote an alternative vision of Belfast. Climate change has become a very emotive issue and carbon emissions have been seen as an important factor in the discussion. Carbon emissions result from the burning of fossil fuels to create energy, which releases harmful carbon dioxide into the air. This process is at such a speed now that it is both unsustainable and produces dangers to the environment including global warming. Sustainability, defined as “a dynamic process which enables…quality of life in many ways which simultaneously protect and enhance the earth’s life support systems” (Global footprints, n. d) is also key to the carbon emissions discussion. With these statements in mind, Northern Ireland has a 98% reliance on imported fossil fuels and Belfast’s per capita emission is the largest in the UK even though...