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

This study assessed the prioritisation for the introduction of possible future European EoW criteria for a list of ten pre-selected construction and demolition waste and by-product (CDW) streams. There was a general positive acceptance and willingness among stakeholders to introduce EU-wide EoW criteria. The results showed the highest potential for possible future EU-wide EoW criteria for the waste and by-product streams of aggregates, concrete, fired clay bricks and gypsum, followed by average potential for asphalt, inert insulation, plastic foam insulation, rigid plastics and wood, and a clear outlier for the stream of building products for reuse. It is advisable to address the highest scoring waste streams first in order to achieve a higher impact. From all the stakeholder interactions during this study, it was clear that the majority of stakeholders would be in favour of future European EoW criteria for the CDW streams investigated. The advantages of possible future EU-wide EoW criteria (clear material status, less administration, environmental benefits and improved market) outweighed the disadvantages (market disruption where local EoW criteria already exist and environmental risks). The demand for the reuse of CDW and the acceptance of a possible future EU-wide EoW was widely supported by all stakeholder groups. The existence of standards for CDW and the existence of some national and regional CDWrelated EoW criteria also showed the urgency and need for EU-wide EoW criteria in the future. Some stakeholders emphasised the need for future European EoW criteria for CDW to recognise existing national and regional criteria in order to minimise or reduce bureaucratic burden. In addition, based on stakeholder input, the introduction of EU-wide EoW criteria for all CDW streams is expected to increase market potential and sales. An important observation was that for inert waste streams there is potential for grouping, e.g. aggregates, asphalt, fired clay bricks and concrete, in future European EoW criteria. This has also been applied in national legislation in several EU Member States. It is recommended to further assess whether grouped future EU-wide EoW criteria would have a higher impact than ungrouped criteria. In general, the input provided a positive picture of the potential environmental and economic impacts associated with the introduction of EU-wide EoW criteria for CDW, together with a positive market attitude. The results of the environmental and human health impact regarding an increase in recycling for gypsum, fired clay bricks. In addition, it should be noted that construction and demolition is by far the largest single waste and by-product stream in the EU and therefore there would be a large potential for positive environmental impacts if recycling rates were improved. The results of this study provided a solid background for the European Commission to plan possible further steps towards EU-wide End-of-Waste criteria for CDW.

Read more

At the end of their service lives, building materials are either recovered (e.g., reused, recycled, incinerated) or disposed of in landfills. In life cycle assessment (LCA) terms, the environmental impacts due to material recovery or disposal are accounted for within the end-of-life (EOL) stage.

Through interviews, a survey, and a workshop, this research explores the functions that existing whole building LCA (WBLCA) tools offer to create models that can best represent EOL processes. This research further explores tool functionalities and data needs and provides recommendations and future research directions to improve EOL modeling in WBLCA tools.

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.

The Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction (Buildings-GSR), a report published by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC), provides an annual snapshot of the progress of the buildings and construction sector on a global scale. The Buildings-GSR 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.

As outlined in the latest edition, the buildings and construction sector contributes significantly to global climate change, accounting for about 21 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022, buildings were responsible for 34 per cent global energy demand and 37 per cent of energy and process-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The 2022 update of the Global Buildings Climate Tracker (GBCT) paints a concerning picture: the gap between the current state and the desired decarbonisation path is significant. To align with the 2030 milestone, an annual increase of ten decarbonisation points is now required, a substantial jump from the six points anticipated per year starting in 2015.

This year, the deep dive chapters are the following: Adaptation and resilient construction methods; Innovations in business cases as well as Nature-based solutions and biophilic design.

Learn more and download the 2023 Buildings-GSR

When it comes to sustainability and circularity, wood as a natural raw material has several advantages over other building materials. As a bio-based resource, it has considerable benefits concerning greenhouse gas emissions, carbon-storing, thermal insulation as well as human health and well-being compared to other construction materials. New types of wood products, being the result of extensive research, enable the extensive use of wood in tall buildings. At the same time, innovative wood products provide less manufacturing waste, low carbon-emission alternatives and store massive quantities of carbon while new technologies speed construction processes, promote energy efficiency and minimize waste.

This study examines the benefits of wood as a construction material and discusses practices applied in the wood construction sector from the perspective of circularity, sustainability and climate change mitigation. It analyses how circularity concepts can be applied in the construction industry using different construction methods and at different stages of value chains. The study describes how different construction techniques and practices contribute to the renewal and sustainability of construction value chains. The analysis is supported by examples of good practice in UNECE member States.

Please read the full report here.

Bauhaus Earth is collaborating with the Toni Piëch Foundation to develop the multi-series knowledge collection 'Building for the Future'. Developed as a modular system, the collection will provide visually appealing and easily digestible information to introduce people to the idea of a regenerative built environment. It will provide an overview of key developments, concepts, and options for action. The first series, 'Setting the Frame', highlights critical facts and figures about the built environment as a major contributor to the climate crisis. It also highlights the vision of a regenerative built environment and presents practical ideas and approaches. The second series will focus specifically on the scale of regenerative buildings, highlighting the use of bio-based materials and how to extend the life cycle of building materials and components, as well as the importance of sufficiency strategies.

The first Series "Setting the Frame" highlights critical facts and figures about the built environment as a major contributor to the climate crisis. It also highlights the vision of a regenerative built environment and presents practical ideas and approaches. The second series “Regenerative Buildings” will focus specifically on the scale of regenerative buildings, emphasizing the use of bio-based materials and how to extend the life cycle of building materials and components.

The Cooling Web is a guidance document and a compilation of case studies that bring out a range of cooling solutions that are diverse and comprehensive and do not rely on conventional energy-guzzling practices. This involves measures to enhance microclimate, thoughtful designs for building envelopes, judicious selection of material, and context-specific cooling approaches.

India is witnessing rising frequency and intensity of heat waves. This is making our cities sear and pushing the built environment community to rethink how to plan and design buildings and cities. This momentum is strongly linked with the India Cooling Action Plan 2019 and its very important goal of thermal comfort for all. The Union government and a few state governments are taking strides to achieve this goal by developing thermal comfort standards and action plans, adopting energy conservation building codes, and other initiatives like cool roof programmes. However, the degree of success lies in the scaled-up implementation of cooling strategies.

The 10 case studies in the volume 1 carefully selected from across the country—with five deep dives—highlight how thermal comfort can be achieved by a combination of passive and active cooling measures. This approach reduces cooling energy demand tremendously and addresses cooling equity. These solutions blend traditional wisdom on passive design with modern techniques and provide optimized solutions so that energy consumption is minimized. These solutions are also a guide toward achieving a rational and climate-appropriate cooling ecosystem that not only ensures resource efficiency but also maintains thermal comfort for building occupants.

Please read the report here.

The Cement CO2 Protocol stands as a pivotal guidance document for calculating carbon emissions in cement manufacturing and enjoys widespread adoption worldwide. Cement manufacturers globally rely on this standard for consistent measurement and management of carbon emissions.

Additionally, the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) maintains an extensive database aligned with this protocol, making it one of the most comprehensive resources for CO2 emissions data in the cement industry. This combined effort underscores the protocol's significance and its substantial impact on carbon reduction initiatives across the sector.

Explore further at https://www.cement-co2-protocol.org/en/.

The GCCA Sustainability Charter and Sustainability Guidelines underpin the sustainability activity of its member companies, setting out what they need to abide by, what they measure and how they report their sustainability performance, especially for Cement and Concrete Manufacturers, providing global guidance on aligning their sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles. These guidelines offer industry-leading Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and parameters tailored to the sector, empowering Sustainability Managers, ESG Managers, and Plant Managers to effectively manage their sustainability performance.

This guideline outlines five key pillars that encompass the full spectrum of sustainability within the cement and concrete sector. It establishes specific requirements for full members to meet in each of these pillars.

The GCCA sustainability guidelines feature a set of straightforward, reliable, and representative KPIs that members must use to monitor and report their performance. To achieve the highest level of compliance, full members are expected to have their data independently verified and made publicly available.

The Global Cement and Concrete Association is an international industry association that was established in 2018. as of 2018, it represented about 35% of the global industry for Cement and Concrete.

Here more about the guidelines here