Can We Build a Better Future?

Synopsis

In many parts of the world, homes and buildings produce around half of all carbon dioxide pollution.

The UK government has pledged all new homes will be carbon neutral by 2016. But will that be possible while still keeping all the benefits of modern 21st century life?

Alex Solk, an architect at Sheppard Robson, thinks so - with clever design and new technology.

He was involved in designing the prototype for the UK’s first zero carbon emissions house.

He visits the building site of what is planned to be the world's first totally zero carbon city, in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Masdar City will not only be zero carbon once it's built, but the construction of the city will have a zero net carbon dioxide output as well.

This is something that's way beyond the attempts of the small rural community of Tinker’s Bubble in Somerset in the south west of England, whose philosophy to help reduce climate-changing carbon dioxide output is to sacrifice modern technology, get closer to nature and live off the land.