Argentina Declares a Climate and Ecological Emergency: What Can Be Done Through Architecture?

Just over a month ago, the Senate of the Argentine Nation approved the Declaration of Climate and Ecological Emergency in the country and gave partial approval to the bill for the Law on Minimum Budgets for Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change. Through this initiative, driven by youth environmental organizations, Argentina becomes the first country in Latin America to move forward with a bill of this nature.

The recent and worrying increase in fires in the Amazon, where the fires have begun to relentlessly consume our planet's most important natural lung, has brought environmental issues to the forefront. The consequences of this event will drastically alter the global climate and demand urgent action, preparing us for industrial, energy, productive, and consumption shifts.

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The climate change law serves as an instrument to address and confront the severity and depth of environmental challenges. Its objectives include: “Establishing the strategies, measures, policies, and instruments related to the study of the impact, vulnerability, and adaptation activities to Global Climate Change that can guarantee human and ecosystem behavior. Promoting the development of strategies for the mitigation and reduction of greenhouse gases in the country. Reducing human and natural system vulnerability to Global Climate Change.” You can read the full bill at the following link.

Undoubtedly, one of the most worrying aspects arising from environmental issues, which will influence how we build and inhabit, is the rise in temperatures in the not-too-distant future. Recently, a group of Swiss researchers calculated hypothetical temperature values for the world's major cities by 2050. According to this study, Buenos Aires will have a climate similar to Sydney's by that year, with a 2.4-degree increase in the warmest month of the year and a 1.1-degree higher average annual temperature. (“To understand the magnitude of this change, during the last ice age, when an ice sheet covered Europe as far south as Paris, the world's climate was only 4 degrees colder”)

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In architecture, it is necessary to engage in the environmental debate, aiming to establish more sustainable policies that help improve the world we live in. But what can we do to address environmental issues from within our discipline?

In May of this year, a group of 17 British architects, including the renowned Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, Rogers Stirk Harbour, and David Chipperfield Architects, wrote an open letter establishing a series of strategies to meet society's construction needs without breaching ecological limits. Today, the letter has nearly 600 signatures from various architects, and its content could serve as a starting point for consciously addressing environmental issues within the architectural discipline. You can read the full declaration on their official website.

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In the document, they call on architects to commit to:

• Raise awareness of the climate and biodiversity emergencies and the urgent need for action among both our clients and supply chains. 
• Advocate for faster change within the industry toward regenerative design practices, giving greater governmental funding priority to the issue. 
• Establish climate and biodiversity mitigation principles as the key measure of success in our industry: demonstrated through awards and recognition. 
• Share knowledge and research on the subject on an open-source basis. 
• Evaluate all new projects aiming to contribute positively to mitigating climate breakdown, and encourage our clients to adopt this approach. 
• Upgrade existing buildings for extended use as a more carbon-efficient alternative to demolition and new construction.
• Include life cycle costing, whole life carbon assessment, and post-occupancy evaluation to reduce the use of both material and operational resources.
• Adopt more regenerative design principles in our studios, with the goal of designing architecture and urbanism that goes beyond the standard of net zero carbon in use. 
• Collaborate with engineers, contractors, and clients to reduce construction waste as much as possible.
• Accelerate the transition toward low-carbon materials across all our work. 
• Minimize the wasteful use of resources in architecture and urban planning, both in quantity and in detail.   

The growing concern in various countries around the world regarding our future is remarkable. Earlier this year, when Spanish architects declared a climate and environmental emergency, they warned of the discouraging future facing the world's urban centers, highlighting the need for action by designers of the built environment.

An urgent debate on these issues is necessary, requiring us to radically reflect on our ways of operating, both in daily practice and collectively. Public policies must inevitably accompany these changes, aiming to reach collaborative agreements involving countries worldwide to secure a sustainable future. You can check the map below to see all the cities worldwide that have declared a Climate Emergency to date.