Lead organisation(s): UNOPS, UN-Habitat, WRI, WorldGBC, GlobalABC

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Description:

To accommodate a growing urban population, buildings and construction are a priority sector for development, contributing to local employment and revenue generation. Half of the buildings standing in 2060 have not yet been built. The number of new buildings is likely to grow rapidly in the coming years, especially in Africa and Asia.

The large housing backlog and growing demand for new buildings and infrastructure can be viewed as both a huge challenge and a tremendous opportunity to expand economic activity and create millions of jobs. It offers a unique window of opportunity to transform the sector into a resource-efficient, resilient and low-emissions sector. The sector currently faces a “lock-in” risk for a high-carbon development path unless the consideration of new norms of energy efficiency, responsibly sourced materials, and better design and construction practices become a common practice.

Decarbonising buildings across the entire life cycle would require a transformation of the buildings and construction sector. Reaching net-zero operational and embodied carbon emission buildings is possible, but requires clear and ambitious policy signals to drive a range of measures including passive building design, material efficiency, low-carbon materials, efficient building envelope measures, and highly efficient lighting and appliances. To accelerate action, greater collaboration involving a range of stakeholders is needed, including policymakers, urban planners, architects, construction companies, materials suppliers, utility companies, developers and investors.

Three years ago, the GlobalABC launched a Global and three Regional Buildings and Construction Roadmaps for Africa, Asia and Latin America, with the hope that they would inspire and support countries and local authorities around the world to find their own pathway and set their own targets towards building decarbonization and resilience. 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 target goals aligned with the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action Pathway and timelines towards achieving zero-emission, efficient and resilient buildings and construction between 2020 and 2050.

Since then, UNEP/GlobalABC and its partners have been working on cascading these regional roadmaps to the sub-regional, national and sub-national levels, following the ambitious Climate Pathways objectives of each country to have an action plan for sustainable buildings for 2025. So far, buildings and construction roadmaps have been launched for Sri Lanka, Colombia, Indonesia, Türkiye, the ASEAN and the EU, and roadmaps are being developed in the Greater Bay Area of China, Burkina Faso, India, Senegal, Bangladesh, Ghana, the Arab region, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Speakers:

• Jonathan Duwyn, Programme Officer, Buildings and Construction, UNEP (Moderator)
• Nikhil Kolsepatil, Programme Coordinator - Energy and Climate, ICLEI South Asia 
• Meltem Bayraktar, Program Manager, Urban Efficiency and Climate, WRI Türkiye 
• Geoffrey Morgan, Senior infrastructure specialist - strategic initiatives, UNOPS (online)
• Naila Ahamed Noor, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Public Works of Bangladesh
• Chris Pobee Abbey, Principal Architect, Ministry of Works and Housing of Ghana 
• Moustapha Diop, Technical Counselor for the Director of Construction and Housing of Senegal
• Smith Mordak, CEO UK Green Building Council 

Agenda: