This report was prepared by the Energy Efficiency Hub’s Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EEB) Task Group, and focuses on the experience of Argentina, Brazil, People’s Republic of China, the European Commission, Germany, Korea and Saudi Arabia. Insights from Belgium, Canada, France, Ireland and the United States are also included. Deep retrofit is an essential tool to reaching building decarbonisation by 2050, and the recommendations in this report focus on enabling widespread deployment of deep retrofits.

Since its launch at COP 26, the Breakthrough Agenda has become established as an annual collaborative process centred around the Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It is currently supported by 59 countries representing over 80% of global GDP, and by over 100 initiatives working to enhance collaboration within major emitting sectors. Countries can endorse Breakthrough goals to make clean technologies and sustainable practices more affordable, accessible and attractive than their alternatives by 2030 in the power, road transport, hydrogen, steel, cement, buildings and agriculture sectors. This report covers six of the seven sectors, with agricultural covered in a separate report.

The Breakthrough Agenda establishes an annual cycle to track developments towards these goals, identify where further coordinated international action is urgently needed to accelerate progress and then galvanise public and private international action behind these specific priorities in order to make these transitions quicker, cheaper, and easier for all.

To initiate this cycle, world leaders tasked the IEA and the UN Climate Change High Level Champions to develop an annual Breakthrough Agenda report to provide an independent evidence base and expert recommendations for where stronger international collaboration is needed.

This document, the 2024 Breakthrough Agenda Report, is the third of these annual reports. It provides an assessment of progress against the recommendations made last year, updating recommendations for what more needs to be done.

This year's report includes the second edition of the Buildings Chapter, developed in collaboration with the GlobalABC. The chapter highlights progress in the built environment and calls on governments to strengthen collaboration, in five priority areas: standards & certification, demand creation,  finance & investment, research & deployment, capacity & skills– to accelerate decarbonisation and enhance resilience in buildings. 

Download the report here

The 2024 State of Cities Climate Finance report (SCCFR) provides the most comprehensive assessment of urban climate flows and needs globally. It aims to inform action on mobilizing finance for city-level climate action at scale by 2030.

Cities are indispensable actors in the climate transition. Currently, 56% of the world’s population live in cities and 70% of people are expected to live in urban areas by 2050 (World Bank 2023a). Many urban areas, particularly in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), are already facing frequent and intense extreme weather events such as floods, drought, and heat.

Buildings and construction not only contribute to climate change, but are also vulnerable to its impacts, whether it’s hurricanes, flooding, sea level rise, and heatwaves. With more frequent and severe climate-related events, the world must adopt climate-resilient building practices to reduce vulnerabilities, particularly in areas experiencing rapid urban growth.

Read the Building and Construction Fact Sheet (UNEP Sectoral Solution to Climate Change) to learn more.

The CRREM initiative released a report on Green Governance and how to implement and develop feasible Net Zero Transition Plans in the real estate industry. The report was authored by the CRREM team and supported by EPRA and UNEP FI.

The report aims to support the industry in accomplishing full decarbonization until 2050 with a holistic and sector-specific framework. In addition to the white paper, CRREM has developed an Excel-based self-assessment guide to help boards identify initial areas for action to improve or develop net zero transition planning.

Each year, Saint-Gobain's Sustainable Construction Observatory produces a Worldwide Barometer to take the pulse of sustainable construction in the real world: perceptions, barriers and progress levers, anticipated solutions, the most active stakeholders, and so on. It allows us to measure progress and identify action areas in which to focus our collective efforts. The 2nd edition of this international survey was conducted by the CSA Institute. Discover the key findings of the Sustainable Construction Barometer (2nd edition).

This report discusses ways of enhancing government capacities to prevent, react and rebuild, thereby minimising the impact of natural disasters on infrastructure assets and operations. It identifies data, collaboration and technologies as drivers of resilience, and highlights financial resources, technical skills and regulatory frameworks as key enablers. The report presents seven actionable principles to ensure infrastructure resilience, drawing from global good practices and in-depth analysis of infrastructure projects in Colombia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mozambique and the United States.

Circle Economy launched the first Circularity Gap Report in 2018 because we recognised the need for improved metrics to lead impactful action. The Report, which will be launched annually, will continue to provide insights into the circular state of the world and additionally focus on specific aspects of circularity. From launching the first global metric in 2018, the industry focus in 2019, to the country perspective in 2020. The focus will be on the topics Circle Economy feel are vital to drive action or where momentum is building.

The main goal of the Global Circularity Gap Report is to provide key players that can implement the circular economy with the insights, data, knowledge and network to accelerate change.  

The Circularity Gap Report 2024 identifies the key enablers of policy, finance and labour to accelerate progress towards the circular economy.

The Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) is increasingly being recognised as the key platform for bringing together all stakeholders including national governments, industry leaders, policymakers, NGOs, academia, and advocates with a shared vision: A zero-emission, efficient, and resilient buildings and construction sector.

In 2023, the GlobalABC made considerable progress in reviewing its strategies and adding new essential strategic elements. Five key documents were produced to support the GlobalABC in delivering on its mandate and serving its members: Revised GlobalABC Strategic Framework; Communications Strategy; Member Engagement Strategy; Renewal and Reporting Framework; and Resource mobilisation strategy.

The 2023 narrative report reflects the continuing growth and evolution of the alliance and the key achievements that have defined the GlobalABC in the past year. 

This guidance is primarily aimed at public procurers involved in a range of contracting agreements related to building materials and products. This includes the purchase of building materials for construction works, but may also extend to material extraction, manufacturing, building, retrofit, refurbishment, design, interior fit out, and end-of-life demolition or deconstruction processes. 

There are a variety of roles within the procurement cycle that the guidance can support, from commissioning, category management, tender preparation and evaluation, to contract management.