Context 163 - March 2020

Editor Rob Cowan Editorial Coordinator Michael Taylor, ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com Editorial Board Tom Copp Nigel Crowe Peter de Figueiredo (book reviews) Rebecca Madgin Andrew McClelland Fiona Newton Gordon Sorensen Jonathan Taylor Michael Taylor (chair) Cartoons by Rob Cowan Context is distributed to all members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. © Institute of Historic Building Conservation 2019 ISSN 0958-2746 Publisher Cathedral Communications Limited, High Street, Tisbury,Wiltshire, England SP3 6HA 01747 871717 context@cathcomm.co.uk www.buildingconservation.com Non-member subscriptions to Context Context is available to corporate bodies at an annual subscription rate, including postage, of: United Kingdom £60.00 Elsewhere £90.00 Context on-line archive Past issues of Context can be viewed on the IHBC website. The archive provides a searchable database and reference for key articles. See www.ihbc.org.uk/page55/ context_archive. The views expressed in Context are not necessarily held by the IHBC or the publisher. Neither the publisher nor the IHBC shall be under any liability whatsoever in respect of contributed articles. We gratefully acknowledge the support of firms whose advertisements appear throughout this publication.While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this issue of Context is current and correct, neither the IHBC nor the publisher can be held responsible for any errors or omissions which may occur. Context themes and copy deadlines Context is published five times a year, in March, May, July, September and November. The next three themes and copy deadlines are: Damp , May, issue 164 (13 March) Food & Drink , July, issue 165 (08 May) Annual School , September , issue 166 (10 July) Please contact Michael Taylor at ihbceditorialboard@gmail.com to discuss any editorial submissions or for information about the Context editorial board. 2 C O N T E X T 1 6 3 : M A R C H 2 0 2 0 Briefing Climate change update The next UN Climate Change Summit (COP 26) will be in Glasgow in November this year. The Conservatives’ general election manifesto stated: ‘We will lead the global fight against climate change by delivering on our world-leading target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050…And we will use our position hosting the UN Climate Change Summit… to ask our global partners to match our ambition.’ The Conservative party’s manifesto commitments include ‘investing £9.2 billion in the energy efficiency of homes, schools and hospitals’. This comprises £3.8 billion over 10 years towards decarbonising social housing, £2.5 billion over five years for home upgrade grants, and £2.9 billion over five years for a public-sector decarbonisation scheme. These commitments, although less ambitious than those of other parties, still present massive challenges in terms of knowledge, skills and capacity. All the parties’ manifesto commitments and government targets were and are based on the flawed energy performance certificates (EPCs) measure. The government is currently consulting on an EPC-based trajectory to 2030 for non-domestic, private-rented sector buildings.Yet there is still no sign of a government response to the 2018 call for evidence on EPCs. Meanwhile, the challenges of climate change are ever more urgent, and the heritage sector has come together nationally and internationally to tackle them. The IHBC has signed up to both the UK Heritage Declares www.heritagedeclares. org, and the international Climate Heritage Network (CHN) (http:// climateheritage.org) . The CHN and ICOMOS hosted an inspirational launch event in Edinburgh in October; I hope that notes from this will be published on or linked via the IHBC website. The key message was that ‘culture is what makes life worth living’. The event was underpinned by ICOMOS’s Future of our Pasts . Inspirational examples included the City of San Antonio (www. sanantonio.gov/sustainability/ saclimateready). Traditional building knowledge and skills featured strongly. A CHN side event highlighted the urgent need for peer-reviewed papers to support a potential heritage submission to the IPCC (Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change). If you have written, are writing, or know of any such papers, please let me know at jpreston@phonecoop. coop. All are now focused on COP 26 in Glasgow 2020 (http:// climateheritage.org/wp-content/ uploads/Madrid-to-Glasgow-Arts- Culture-and-Heritage-Climate- Action-Plan.pdf). Who has read Article 7(e) of the Paris Climate Change Agreement (https://unfccc.int/files/meetings/ paris_nov_2015/application/ pdf/paris_agreement_english_. pdf)? It stresses ‘improving the effectiveness and durability of adaptation actions’. This could be vital ammunition in countering inappropriate retrofit proposals, particularly in the context of the potential for decarbonisation rather than deep retrofit, as highlighted in a joint Cadw and Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance (STBA) event, also in October (see stbauk.org) . John Preston, heritage chair, STBA