• The U.S. government is looking to its own buildings as a source for cutting carbon emissions with a new energy and climate performance standard. Federal officials have also announced a proposed rule that would eliminate energy-related emissions from new and renovated federal buildings. The initiatives aim to achieve President Joe Biden’s goal of net-zero emissions from federal buildings by 2045, said Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
• The newly announced performance standard for existing federal buildings would require federal agencies to eliminate energy use and electrify equipment and appliances in 30% of their building space by 2030, Mallory said. Achieving the standard would require a combination of electrification with deep energy retrofits, energy and water use reductions, and facility improvements to maximize cost efficiency, and would impact 300,000 buildings.
• Additionally, the U.S. Dept. of Energy proposed a rule Dec. 7 requiring electrification of all new and renovated federal buildings. Starting in 2025, those buildings would be required to reduce their on-site emissions tied to energy consumption by 90% compared to 2003 levels, and “fully decarbonize” by 2030.

• Speaking at a Washington Post Live event, White House climate envoy John F. Kerry said that last month’s U.N. Climate Change Conference in Egypt “fell slightly short” of making progress collectively among global governments. While roughly 30 countries raised their targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions for the summit — known as COP27 — too few are moving quickly enough to avert a global crisis, Kerry said.
• According to Kerry, the world now faces a year of “very tricky … very complicated” negotiations on how to fulfill one of the major steps forward from the summit, a new fund to compensate vulnerable countries for harm caused by climate change, he said. He added that while the United States must lead in such financing, China and other countries must pay, too, while other funding must come from Wall Street and international development banks.
• His remarks come a day after Vanguard Group, one of the world’s largest asset managers, said it is pulling out of a major initiative among financial firms to address climate change. The company said it was withdrawing from the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative because of confusion the group was creating over the implication for index funds popular among Vanguard clients.

• Key Senate and House leaders have reached a bipartisan agreement on a new Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) that would authorize more than $37 billion in federal funds for 25 new and five modified Army Corps of Engineers flood and hurricane protection, harbor dredging, and other civil works projects across the U.S.
• The joint announcement of the deal came late on Dec. 6, from the chairs and top Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committees. Lawmakers said that the WRDA would become the vehicle for a massive Dept. of Defense authorization bill.
• By far the largest single project on the bill's list is a huge storm protection and ecosystem restoration program in the Texas Gulf Coast. The new bill authorizes $21.4 billion in federal funds for the Texas project, whose total cost is estimated at $34.4 billion.

Deloitte, a UK-based global consultancy, announced its acquisition of PACER, a Netherlands-based engineering and consulting firm that specializes in infrastructure and investment projects. The acquisition of PACER, now part of Deloitte's Responsible Infrastructure & Capital Projects team within Risk Advisory, will allow Deloitte to scale up capacity and offer clients a full range of responsible services for infrastructure and investment projects. “We are very excited to welcome our new colleagues and to engage with our combined customers about the opportunities presented by this acquisition. With ambitious government goals for responsible infrastructure development and the need for new capital projects at our corporate clients over the next 5 to 10 years, this has never been more important,” says Harvey Christophers, Partner Risk Advisory at Deloitte.

Universal Engineering Sciences (UES), a Florida-based consulting and engineering firm specializing in geotechnical engineering, construction materials testing, building code compliance, threshold inspections, and environmental consulting, has acquired Dan Brown & Associates, PC (DBA), a Tennessee-based geotechnical and foundations firm focused on problem-solving relating to Deep Foundations, Earth Retention Systems, Slope Stabilization Methods, and Earthquake Engineering. This acquisition expands UES' growing geotechnical expertise as well as its presence nationwide. DBA provides services for a wide range of geotechnical applications and problems. "The addition of Dan Brown and Associates significantly deepens our geotechnical and foundation problem-solving bench strength, especially necessary in this high-growth area where demand for our services is growing and we're continuously partnering on new and larger infrastructure projects," said David Hesterlee, PE.