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Our President's uncompromising opening speech at the CIBSE/ASHRAE Gathering in September challenged Government to engage with the responsibilities of cutting building carbon emissions to limit the monstrous outcomes we face from climate change.

Terry Wyatt referred to Sir John Houghton's Guardian article that called for human induced climate change demands to be treated as a 'weapon of mass destruction' and hence addressed, like all national threats, as a first duty of Government.

Sir John is not given to hyperbole; he uses only the precise lexicon of the scientist. Coming from him, it was a call to arms.

And Terry sounded the advance. In the Gathering's parallel sessions, I stayed with the climate change papers, though there was much of value elsewhere. The platform sometimes held different views (perhaps not disinterested ones) and there were a few expressive interchanges, but the thinking and opinion was of a high order and always rooted in common cause, while the differences were only issues of interpretation and method.

It was wonderful to see what many different organisations brought to our ranks. For two days we were in line abreast – differently uniformed and armed – but as impressive a host as one could find to pit against global warming.

Yet I left with the melancholy of a trooper advancing at Balaclava – for we are far too few to do the job unaided.

Distinguished climatologists like Sir John tell us that mankind only has one shot at dealing with the climate change – and this is about the last moment for doing it.

The key lies in getting Government support to empower us to change an outdated building design paradigm – that is the root problem

Nations must act now – but as I write, President Putin, the crucial last signatory needed to bring in Kyoto (for so long as President Bush and his oily cronies hold sway in USA) is vacillating. The time has come for UK to accept an historic calling to give leadership as one country whose full engagement would be respected internationally.

This Government must enable a way forward that will endure beyond its term. True, it has already put some things in place and set out some fine intentions in the White Paper. But if it is to keep faith, Government must accept Terry Wyatt's demand that it now enacts fiscal and regulatory measures aligned to its stated goals.

And what is the point of further equivocation, when there is nothing to lose? In the unlikely event Sir John and his colleagues are wrong, just conserving depleting reserves of fossil fuels will be judged kindly by history. It even makes sense now as an energy security step, especially since security of supply is already on the Government's agenda for UK energy policy One concern about Government's true commitment to the climate change agenda is its lack of effort to win hearts and minds. Yet it, of all people, knows that new policy measures that seek to change behaviour – like introducing seat belts or the breathalyser – must firstly be campaigned to change attitudes. Terry himself has said that consumers must be educated first.

If Government is prepared to campaign, CIBSE should pledge it our support.

In any event, we should strive to achieve the massive cuts in building energy demands needed. I believe we can do this in ways that are far more straightforward and inexpensive than many commentators suppose. I also believe that we can devise means to finally decouple the reduction of carbon emissions related to buildings from the privations and ramping costs that are assumed to accompany it.

If we do this then other countries will happily follow the models we create and a benign cycle will have started. Our maxim should be "you can have your cake and eat it".