This report - Sri Lanka Roadmap for Sustainable Housing and Construction 2020 – 2050 - presents the findings of the Sustainable Building Construction Country Assessment for Sri Lanka (SBC-CA) and a Roadmap for Sustainable Housing and Construction and achieving NDCs in the construction industry in Sri Lanka. It examines the current status, and potential opportunities and challenges for adopting Sustainable Building Construction (SBC) practices and policies. The Country Assessment and the Roadmap are structured on the approach laid out by the ‘Global Alliance for Building Construction (GlobalABC) Roadmap for Buildings and Construction 2020-2050, where 8 Action Areas have been identified for the transition towards sustainability in the Construction Sector: Urban planning, New Buildings, Existing Buildings, Building Operations, Appliances and Systems, Materials, Resilience, and Clean Energy.

Download the roadmap here.

The report provides guidance on how to contribute to the net-zero journey and decarbonize building portfolios using a stepwise approach. This guidance has been developed within the scope of the PCAF project Financing towards net-zero buildings, funded by the Laudes Foundation. Throughout its development, PCAF intensively engaged with the Core Project Team of the PCAF project, which consists of a diversified set of representatives from the financial industry; and the Expert Advisory Group, which is comprised of key stakeholders from the building and financial sectors at both European and global levels that provided key expertise and guidance.

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The Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction (Buildings-GSR) is a flagship publication of the UNEP-hosted Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC). The Buildings-GSR provides an annual snapshot of the progress of the buildings and construction sector on a global scale and reviews the status of policies, finance, technologies, and solutions to monitor whether the sector is aligned with the Paris Agreement goals. It also provides stakeholders with evidence to persuade policymakers and the overall buildings and construction community to take action.

What is new in the 2022 Buildings-GSR? 

• Buildings and construction: disruptions and challenges facing the buildings sector in 2022 
• Global Building Carbon Tracker: Are we on track towards the Paris Agreement Goals?
• Updates on building codes and building decarbonisation in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)
• Status of investment in building energy efficiency
• Deep dive on:
  • Africa (regional focus)
  • Building materials (topical focus)

The 2022 Buildings-GSR finds that 

• Despite a substantial increase in investment and success at a global level lowering the energy intensity of buildings, the sector’s total energy consumption and CO2 emissions increased in 2021 above pre-pandemic levels. Buildings energy demand increased by around 4% from 2020 to 135 EJ – the largest increase in the last 10 years. CO2 emissions from buildings operations have reached an all-time high of around 10 GtCO2, around a 5% increase from 2020 and 2% higher than the previous peak in 2019. 
• The buildings and construction sector is not on track to achieve decarbonization by 2050. And the gap between the actual climate performance of the sector and the decarbonization pathway is widening.
• Global energy price volatility and rising interest rates are likely to hamper investment in building decarbonization by governments, households, and businesses. 

Download our 2022 Buildings-GSR and read more!

Watch our video "Is the Buildings and Construction Sector on Track to decarbonize? 2022 Buildings-GSR." 

The Tracking Report on Buildings published by the International Energy Agency in September 2022 indicates that the buildings sector is "not on track". 

In 2021 the operation of buildings accounted for 30% of global final energy consumption and 27% of total energy sector emissions (8% being direct emissions in buildings and 19% indirect emissions from the production of electricity and heat used in buildings). Both energy consumption and emissions rebounded to above 2019 values, following the drop in 2020 from Covid-19 restrictions.

Minimum performance standards and building energy codes are increasing in both scope and stringency, and the use of more efficient and renewable energy technology in buildings is accelerating while the power sector continues to decarbonise. Yet, the buildings sector needs more rapid change to get on track with the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario. This next decade is crucial to implement the necessary measures, in particular for all new buildings and 20% of the existing building stock to be zero-carbon-ready as soon as 2030.

Read the report to learn more. 
 

The Existing Building Decarbonization Code is a new way for jurisdictions to reduce carbon emissions and meet Climate Action Plan and public health and equity goals. The need to address existing building stock is great, with 5.9 million existing commercial buildings in the U.S. comprising 97 billion square feet. New construction represents less than 2% of building activity in any given year, leaving a vast amount of outdated technologies in current building stock. NBI’s release of the Building Decarbonization Code provided the first off-the-shelf solution--as an overlay to the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC)--for jurisdictions to transform energy codes into decarbonization codes for new buildings. Expanding where that document left off, the Existing Building Decarbonization Code complements the original adding provisions specifically for existing buildings. The new model language covers both residential and commercial buildings including all-electric and mix-fuel energy use pathways.

This Roadmap has been developed by the Danish Energy Agency - DEA in close cooperation with the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources – Directorate General of New Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (Direktorat Jenderal Energi Baru Terbarukan dan Konservasi Energi) and a group of consultants (Viegand Maagoe A/S from Denmark and Chakra Giri Energi Indonesia from Indonesia). It is based on three stakeholder consultations that took place in the end of 2021 (see annex 1 with list of involved stakeholders). This Roadmap will provide orientation and guidance to public and private key stakeholders in the Indonesian buildings and construction sector as well as non-governmental organizations and civil society. The identified targets and actions build on consultations with the building and construction sector, experts at national level and recommendations from international experts.

EIT Climate-KIC and partners have designed the Handbook: Bio-Based and Circular Buildings for Healthy, Clean Cities as an interactive manual and a tracking instrument. It contains information resources and step-by-step processes to help and align local stakeholders’ efforts around reducing embodied carbon emissions in buildings, understand and explore circular practices, and influence changes in the supply chain towards bio-based materials, such as timber – which are more sustainable than the current use of concrete and steel. 

The Handbook supports all actors in the building’s value chain to understand metrics used for decision-making . In doing so, it enables stakeholders to develop benchmarks, to track and evaluate indicators over time; to visualise the processes involved and understand how they need to evolve to lead to different outcomes ; and finally, to create models for collaborative decision-making towards shared goals.

"Financing Net Zero Carbon Buildings" is the output of an exercise that aims to build the foundation for future work by the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (the Alliance) through a structured approach to analyze the challenges and priorities relevant to cities in decarbonizing the buildings sector. It is not an exhaustive study of zero carbon buildings, but rather a guide for future alliance work and exercise to build in-house knowledge.

Read the paper here.

The National Roadmap for Net-Zero Carbon Buildings in Colombia establishes short, medium and long-term actions for the entire construction sector chain: urban planning, materials, transportation and distribution, design, labeling, certification, water and energy use, and waste management. It is a document that becomes a reference framework with goals and actions to be implemented in this sector to contribute to carbon neutrality, an aspiration set for the year 2050 by the National Government through the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.

This roadmap was financed with a budget from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), in alliance with the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), under the leadership of the Sustainable Construction Council and the Minambiente, with the participation of the advisory committee of the Minvivienda, the National Planning Department (DNP), Minenergía, Camacol and the Planning Secretariats of Cali and Bogota.

Discover the roadmap here.

This technical brief on the Importance of Building Decarbonization and Benefits for the SDGs is developed with the support of UNEP and the GlobalABC to inform the 3rd Global Conference on Strengthening Synergies between the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

According to the IPCC, well-designed and effectively implemented mitigation actions in the buildings sector have significant potential to help achieve the SDGs, as they relate to 15 of the 17 UN SDGs (IPCC, 2022). Whilst contributing to the synergies with most of the SGDs, climate change mitigation actions in the buildings and construction sector may also have trade-offs. The 2030 Agenda sets out ambitious goals for the achievement of a better and more sustainable future for all. Transforming buildings and the built environment can generate multiple benefits, from climate to resources, to improved quality of life, health, shelter and access to basic services. It is critical for the buildings and construction sector to harness the synergies between climate and SDGs while minimising the negative trade-offs. It is also important to note that there exists no one-size-fits-all solution: Synergies and trade-offs vary depending on the national contexts.