“The climate emergency remains one of the biggest threats we face”. Essential, sustainable change and mitigation requires a global conversations and effort.
Today (1st July), marks the start of London Climate Action Week (LCAW), ‘harnessing the power of London for global climate action’. This, now digital event, will prioritise green recovery, housing world-leading experts and policy makers for post COVID-19 climate policy responses and strategies on a national and international scale. Composed to cover three key areas: green investments for rebuilding economies, building and strengthening international collaboration to address the global climate crisis and creating solutions for adaptation and resilience.
2020 had been designated a super year for climate conversations with COP26 scheduled to take place in November. Now postponed until 2021 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the battle against climate change remains an urgent threat to humanity.
“The climate emergency remains one of the biggest threats we face. As we recover from Covid-19, we can’t replace one health emergency with other – we need to come out of this crisis embracing a new normal which puts tackling the climate emergency at the heart of everything we do” Sadiq Khan, London Mayor.
The Timber Trade Federation (TTF), under their Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) communications funded by the UK Department for International Development are optimistic to carry on the conversation. Conversations about Climate Change, is a specially commissioned design competition, exhibition, and event series, providing a platform for urgent climate debates.
Launched on the 1st June, running until the 24th August, the TTF is calling for architects, designers and craftspeople to create ‘conversation pieces’ from responsibly sourced tropical timber. The challenge to entrants is to develop products that score on aesthetics and technical performance. At the same time, these creations must stimulate discussion around the role of forests and wood in mitigating climate change and the role of FLEGT in ensuring legal and sustainable forestry and timber supply.
This project encourages designers and specifiers to respond to the material of tropical hardwood timber, considering how their role as a specifier is vital for implementing change, while creating a platform for urgent climate debates.
In the later part of the year, 14th – 20th of November, LCAW will be a larger event with the “whole of society”; policy makers, communities, academics, researchers and others coming together to explore solutions to a net zero carbon world. Full information on London Climate Action Week can be found here.
Throughout November, all entrants from the TTFs Climate Conversations competition will have their designs exhibited in an online galley and a shortlist displayed at the Building Centre in London, timed to mark the original date of COP26 and highlighting the vital role for tropical forests in the climate debate. With the timely running of the LCAW during November, the TTF’s FLEGT project plan to use this momentum to further communicate on the importance of timber in the climate debate and the role of tropical timber.
“Responsibly forested timber is an essential part of the solution to emission reduction needed for mitigating the worst impacts of climate change, but tropical forests have often been undervalued and forest land cleared for other uses”, said David Hopkins, CEO Timber Trade Federation.
Timber for the TTF’s Climate Conversations will be sourced through TTF members in line with their Responsible Purchasing Policy, from the fifteen countries who are currently working towards FLEGT-licensing. FLEGT is the UK and EU’s Action Plan to combat illegal logging, subsequent trade and deforestation, and instead introduce forest monitoring, auditing, multi-stakeholder dialogue and engagement with local communities. The landmark shift FLEGT licensing brings, even prior to licensing can be seen across the sustainability spectrum; socially, economically, and environmentally for the implementing country.
Find out more about the competition, apply and join the conversation.
