Climate Action Roadmaps for Buildings and Construction
GlobalABC global and regional roadmaps
Forging pathways towards a zero-emission, efficient and resilient buildings and construction sector
Building on lessons learnt and experience accumulated over the first four years working on the Climate Action Roadmaps for Buildings and Construction, the GlobalABC developed a new methodology and step-by-step guide to support countries in the development of roadmaps to decarbonise the buildings and construction sector.
This step-by-step guide provides detailed guidance for setting goals, identifying key actions, and creating a pathway towards a more efficient, low-carbon, resilient and inclusive buildings and construction sector.
This new roadmaps framework offer a more holistic approach to decarbonization by better considering the entire building value chain and the carbon emissions related to material manufacturing and building construction, as well as integrating climate adaptation and inclusion as central pieces of any decarbonization strategy.
To facilitate goal setting and monitoring, this framework comprises four objectives to align with the Paris Agreement and the Climate Action Pathways: (1) Zero embodied carbon, (2) Zero operational carbon, (3) Adaptation and (4) Wellbeing and inclusion.
To facilitate goal setting and monitoring, this framework comprises four objectives to align with the Paris Agreement and the Climate Action Pathways: (1) Zero embodied carbon, (2) Zero operational carbon, (3) Adaptation and (4) Wellbeing and inclusion.
These four objectives cuty across five action areas:
- Action Area 1: Strategic Priorities refers to national, regional and local development planning processes that define development objectives, their prioritization and implementation. This action area recognizes the importance of embedding inclusive climate action in the buildings and construction sector at the highest level of governance to give a clear direction and mandate to line ministries and local governments for its implementation.
- Action Area 2: Spatial and Urban Development refers to the ways in which people use land at a country, regional and urban scale and the supportive regulations and processes, including land use regulations, urban development planning (i.e., master plan), urban project implementation and natural environment protection. Many spatial planning decisions impact the capacity to mitigate carbon emissions and ensure the adaptation and resiliency of the buildings and construction sector and the inclusion and wellbeing of the population.
- Action Area 3: Existing Buildings considers all building management phases, including operation, maintenance, renovation, refurbishment and decommissioning. It also includes the ways in which materials, systems and appliances are used and selected during the building's useful life. This action area considers, more specifically, the reduction of operational carbon emissions, the climate adaptation of the building stock, and circularity.
- Action Area 4: New Buildings includes all phases of planning and delivering a new building: project preparation, procurement, design and construction. It also considers material, system and appliance choices. Construction planning and delivery are critical phases for climate action. During those phases, architects, engineers and developers have the opportunity to make sustainable choices for the future.
- Action Area 5: Construction Supply Chain includes raw material extraction, system, appliance and material manufacturing, commercialization, importation and the norms regulating the supply chain. This action area is critical to reducing the building's embodied carbon by acting upstream, implementing circularity principles and ensuring sustainable production.
The methodology for roadmap development follows a seven-step process designed to promote inclusion and adaptability in diverse local contexts, and it is underpinned by easy-to-use tools, such as the Roadmap Assessment Tool.
Download the Climate Action Roadmaps for Buildings and Construction Step-by-step Guidance
Explore our Global and Regional Roadmaps
Roadmap Coordination Hub
Following the launch of the GlobalABC Regional Roadmaps for Buildings and Construction in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the work in roadmap development continues at full speed. While these roadmaps continue to be disseminated as powerful tools for promoting decarbonization of the built environment, the methodology and process are now being cascaded to sub-regional, national and sub-national levels leaping forward towards implementation in over 30 countries/jurisdictions (including Türkiye, Sri Lanka, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ghana, India, Odisha & Maharashtra States, Bangladesh, 22 countries and territories in the Arab League, China’s Greater Bay Area (Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau), Cambodia, Viet Nam, ASEAN, Colombia, and Indonesia) by GlobalABC members in collaboration with the GlobalABC. In addition, buildings and construction roadmaps are being developed by the WorldGBC and national GBCs as part of the #BuildingLife Project, including the European Union, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Chile, UK, Poland, Spain, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Czech Republic, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Mauritius
The roadmap coordination hub is a core group where synergies between the different initiatives are identified and explored, ensuring that the lifespan of the roadmaps extends well beyond the projects, through local engagement and implementation. Through expertise sharing and the pooling of data, these organisations are working together to develop key actions to lay the foundations for the 2050 vision and to bridge roadmaps to higher level political processes like the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the MPGCA Pathways to ensure engagement and commitment across the entire value-chain and constituencies. This is yet another instance of the radical collaboration pushing towards a zero-emission, efficient and resilient buildings and construction sector.
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- First Roadmap Methodology
GlobalABC global and regional roadmaps: Forging pathways towards a zero-emission, efficient and resilient buildings and construction sector
The GlobalABC Global and Regional Roadmaps for Buildings and Construction in Africa, Asia and Latin America help set pathways to decarbonization of the buildings and construction sector by 2050. Developed as a framework and a process, they present a comprehensive approach to emission reductions from the built environment along the full life cycle, with aspirational short and medium term and longer-term targets goals aligned with the MPGCA Human Settlements Pathways and timelines towards achieving zero-emission, efficient and resilient buildings and construction between 2020 and 2050.
The roadmaps cover eight themes, including urban planning, new buildings, existing buildings, building operations, appliances and systems, materials, resilience and clean energy, in the quest of harnessing the sector’s enormous opportunities for decarbonization and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Built on a global methodology, they reflect regional specificities, and highlight priorities and data gaps for each region.
Developed in partnership with the International Energy Agency (IEA), the roadmaps are a product of a highly consultative process, involving more than 700 experts who engaged in its development process, refining them each time with more data and examples from the regions. They bring a common vision and language for the buildings and construction sector's highly fragmented value-chain and support the transition towards the decarbonization of the sector. The WBCSD Building System Carbon Framework is a complementary tool for setting a common language, a simple and transparent way to represent and understand carbon emissions across the life-cycle of buildings, enabling alignment and synergies between the various actors of the value chain.
Download our roadmaps below!
