COP27 Side Event: Pathways to Sustainable Building Markets through Credible, Comparable Lifecycle-based Information
Place: Room Thebes (room 7), COP27 Blue Zone, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
Lead organizations: GlobalABC, EPD Egypt, UNEP Life-Cycle Initiative, RCREEE
Date: 10 November 2022
Time: 18:30-20:00 EET
Register here to watch the livestream
Description
In 2020, the buildings and construction sector accounted for almost 40% of global energy-related GHG emissions, 35% of final energy demand, and a large share of global resource extraction (2021 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction, GlobalABC). How we construct our buildings and cities is an example of unsustainable consumption and production practices. Hence, without a doubt, the way we build and use our buildings must change if we are to reach the climate change mitigation targets set out in the Paris Agreement.
The assessment of potential environmental impacts associated with a product, a process, or a system, along its life cycle, from the extraction of raw material to the end of life, is called life cycle assessment (LCA). Adopting a life cycle thinking approach (LCT) for the built environment allows decision-makers to assess burdens and benefits associated with construction through its life cycle, including its supply chain, and to avoid solutions that shift burdens along the life cycle. All stakeholders along the life cycle of the building and construction industry, such as financers, manufacturers, constructors, real estate agencies and users, have an essential role to play in improving the overall carbon performance of buildings.
There are many tools that can be used to apply LCA to identify methods to reduce emissions in the building and construction sector. For example, the SCP Hotspots Analysis Tool (SCP-HAT) can be used to identify hot spot areas of unsustainable production and consumption along supply chains to support setting priorities in national sustainable consumption and production and climate policies. Additionally, communicating this information through coherent and simplified labeling processes is important to drive unified decision-making processes across stakeholders.
Event Objectives
- Highlight the opportunities on national and organizational level
- Show the importance of LCA for market transformation and building decarbonization
- LCA opportunities for buildings and construction in Egypt and developing countries
- Current status of LCA as applied to the buildings and construction sector in EPD in Egypt, MENA & Africa
- Strategize a clear-cut way forward (beyond COP27) to infiltrate the Egyptian and neighbouring region's market
Speakers
- Sebastiaan Stiller, CEO, EPD International
- Jonathan Duwyn, Programme Officer, UNEP/GlobalABC
- Nasser Ayoub, Co-founder and CEO, EPD Egypt
- Jauad El Kharraz, Executive Director, Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE)
- Elin Eriksson, Director Key Accounts and Assignments, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute
- Ehab Shalaby, CEO and Chairman, DCarbon Egypt
- Mita Noriyuki, Director Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, ICCA
Click here to learn more about the speakers.