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Pre-forum programme

Co-organised by France and UNEP, with the support of the GlobalABC, the Buildings and Climate Global Forum will take place on 7-8 March 2024 in Paris, France.

In the lead-up to the forum, a number of events will be organised by partners on 5 and 6 March. Discover the pre-forum programme below and see how you can engage. All times in CET. Some of the events are closed-door, and others are open-door. Please click on the title links to learn more about the events and register as applicable.

5 March

Sites Visits (Click to register)

  • Organised by: Construction21 and Alliance HQE-GBC
  • Time: 9:00-12:30
  • Open door
  • Description: Construction21 and Alliance HQE-GBC, will organize visits to a range of High-Quality Environmental standard sites across Paris. These will include heritage buildings, housing and renovated buildings.
  • Contacts: Rachel Chermain - HQE-GBC Alliance CEO - [email protected]
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Alliance HQE-GBC

 

Site Visit - ARBORETUM - The largest low-carbon campus in Europe, made of mass timber (Click to register)

  • Organised by: BBCA-LCBI (in partnership with ICAWOOD & WO2)
  • Time: 15:00-17:00
  • Open door
  • Description: Association BBCA and LCBI, in partnership with ICAWOOD and project owner WO2, organizes the visit of an outstanding low-carbon site in Paris: Arboretum, 125,000 m² of offices and services, is the largest campus in Europe largely built from solid wood, for a minimal carbon footprint. In France, it is the largest tertiary complex labeled BBCA (Low Carbon Building) Excellent, its highest level. Non-profit aiming to decarbonize real estate, the BBCA Association is a French pioneer in the development of knowledge, methodologies and certification schemes at all scales, from building to neighborhood, promoting low carbon real estate. Its latest project, the Low Carbon Building Initiative LCBI, proposes a unique, pan-European low-carbon measurement method and certification system, available in 8 countries. The visit will be held by ICAWOOD, WO2 and BBCA/LCBI, in presence of the project's key players.
  • Venue: 1 Place des Papeteries, 92000 Nanterre
  • Contacts: Cécile Dap, 06 42 97 66 43, [email protected]

BBCA

Building Life: Action and Accountability on Whole Life Carbon (Click to register)

  • Organised by: WorldGBC
  • Time: 14:00-17:00
  • Open door
  • Description: The BuildingLife project is driving action and accountability to tackle the Whole Life Carbon of buildings across Europe. National Green Building Councils and a community of nearly 200 ambassadors have been pivotal in the push for Whole Life Carbon policy to be introduced. Join us at for an interactive deep dive into this exciting programme to explore proven tactics to scale ambition and accelerate change into the 2030s and beyond.
  • Venue: 6 Place du Colonel Bourgoin 75012 Paris

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Rebuilding disaster zones to high standards of performance

  • Organised by: Building Action Coalition (Enniscorthy Forum)
  • Time: 13:00-18:00
  • Closed door
  • Description: This event will focus on how areas affected by disasters can be rebuilt with new standards of building performance. With the focus on Ukraine, this session will explore various approaches and frame the discussion around commitments and action plans.

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Unpacking the Buildings and Climate agenda: the role of standards, data, skills and the value chain (Click to register)

  • Organised by: RICS
  • Time: 17:30-20:00
  • Open door
  • Description: This session will focus on the role of standards, building codes, data and skills in decarbonizing the built environment and ultimately deliver the Buildings Breakthrough goal of reaching near net zero by 2030. A panel of experts from across the industry will discuss the path forward, and present a set of common global principles for all relevant stakeholders, with the aim of ensuring consistent and transparent global measurement as we decarbonise the built environment.
  • Venue: Paris Marriott Champs Elysees
  • Contacts: Tim Smith, [email protected]

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New Ambitions for Adaptation & Resilience (Click to register)

  • Organised by: GlobalABC Adaptation Working Group
  • Time: 11:00-13:00
  • Open door
  • Description: In this Adaptation Working Group meeting, we invite long-term members and as well as all stakeholders to engage in a series of thoughtful activities aimed at advancing our climate resilience efforts. Together, we will work out ambitious initiatives as we transition from a conventional working group to a centralized Resilience Hub, fostering collaboration and ingenuity. There will be interactive sessions designed to explore the specific objectives and goals of the Resilience Hub, ensuring clarity and alignment in our collective endeavour. Through brainstorming exercises, we will collectively identify and address critical gaps in current resilience efforts, drawing upon our amalgamated expertise to craft effective strategies for action. Together, we will imagine the future of resilience, mapping out clear pathways and actionable goals for both immediate and long-term impact.
  • Venue: French Ministry for Ecological Transition (Tour Sequoia, 1 Place Carpeaux, 92800 Puteaux)
  • Contacts: Victor PIANET, [email protected]

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6 March

Initial meeting of UNEP working group on passive cooling strategies for buildings

  • Organised by: Cool Coalition and GlobalABC
  • Time: 9:00-12:00
  • Only open to the members of Cool Coalition and GlobalABC
  • Description: UNEP Cool Coalition and GlobalABC are planning to launch a new joint working group focusing on passive cooling strategies for buildings. This working group aims to convene interested organisations/countries on promoting and accelerating the adoption of passive cooling strategies for building thermal comfort in hot climates and leverage its members’ collective knowledge and resources to support the development of passive cooling policies/toolkits/capacity building programmes, etc, for the implementation of passive cooling solutions.
  • Venue: Ground Floor Meeting Room, UNEP Paris Office [1 rue Miollis 75015 Paris, France] & Online (Teams meeting)
  • How to participate?: If you are interested in contributing to this working group somehow and are able to participate in the meeting in person, please send an email to Gennai Kamata <[email protected]> by Wednesday 28 February with the information of your name/title/organisation/mobile number so that we can liaise the info with security to allow you to access the UNEP premises on the day. For those who request to join online, given the number of participants, we will confirm your attendance and send the Teams link.

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Reinvesting in Resilient Real Estate (Click to register)

  • Organised by: Chaire Économie de la Transition écologique urbaine / Collège de France
  • Time: 16:30-19:30
  • Open door
  • Description: This event will be organized around four roundtable discussions and will bring together representatives from disciplines such as economics, architecture, and engineering, as well as public and economic decision-makers. The conference will demonstrate how resilient buildings can offer long-term economic and financial benefits. The event will also emphasize the importance of designing resilient buildings: buildings that can withstand and adapt to environmental, technological, social, and economic challenges. It will demonstrate how resilient buildings can play a crucial role in addressing current challenges and creating a more sustainable future.
  • Venue: Collège de France, 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot 75005 Paris
  • Contacts[email protected]; [email protected]

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Workshop: Engaging policy to advance low carbon, resilient communities and quality of life

  • Organised by: Enniscorthy Forum, UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, U.S. Green Building Council
  • Time: 9:00-18:00
  • Closed door
  • Description: This full day workshop brings together national and local governments, policy experts and leading building practitioners for a day-long dive into the policies needed to decarbonize buildings and to create more resilient, liveable communities. Part 1 of the workshop focuses on equitable policies for decarbonising buildings, and Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) in the Global South. The policy panel will discuss a range of options such as codes, performance standards, and green building incentives, and applicability to national and local governments. Part 2 of the workshop includes the luncheon keynote and two interactive workshop sessions. Justin Schwartz, Executive Vice President and Provost, Penn State University will deliver the keynote and share the work across the university network of the Building Action Coalition. The first workshop will focus on Whole Life Carbon (WLC) data, different types of building data available in different parts of the world, and implications for policy. The second workshop will highlight model building policies in North and South cities. Part 3 of the workshop features a panel discussion on building integration into power and community infrastructure, discussing how buildings can serve communities and contribute to flexible grids.
  • Venue: La Grande Arche de La Defense
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Market Transformation reception

  • Organised by: WBCSD
  • Time: 17:30-20:00
  • Closed door
  • Description: This reception marks the formal presentation and launch of the Built Environment Market Transformation Action Agenda.

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Carbon Pricing Partnership Group meeting

  • Organised by: Urban Land Institute
  • Time: 13:00-17:00
  • Closed door
  • Description: This reception marks the formal presentation and launch of the Built Environment Market Transformation Action Agenda.

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Deep Retrofit Models

  • Organised by: Energy Efficiency Hub
  • Time: 13:00-16:00
  • Closed door
  • Description: The Energy Efficiency Hub will host an internal workshop featuring dynamic exchanges among Hub Member governments on practical approaches and concrete actions to incorporate deep efficiency measures into building renovations. The event is organised by the Hub’s Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EBB) Task Group, which promotes policy best practices and fosters synergies with existing stakeholders working in the field. EEB is co-chaired by the European Commission and Germany. Currently, Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea, and Saudi Arabia are Members of the EEB.
  • Venue: Hybrid from IEA offices in Paris

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Decarbonised, Scalable and Resilient

  • Organised by: Global Cement and Concrete Association
  • Time: 15:45-17:15
  • Closed door
  • Description: A number of speakers will reveal how they are delivering fully recyclable materials and projects that can address the climate and biodiversity challenge with materials that are resilient to the variety of risks exacerbated by climate change.

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Securing the Future of Our Forests and Cities

  • Organised by: Built by Nature
  • Time: 18:00-21:00
  • Open door
  • Description: The future of global forests and cities are inextricably bound together. Only through their carefully managed symbiosis can we reverse climate change, restore forest health and stability, and meet the demands of global urbanisation. It is vital that everyone commits to making the process of building a force for climate restoration and biodiversity enhancement rather than a source of emissions, land consumption, and solid waste. This event will broaden the connections and multi-sectoral input in the interest of strengthening the collective Securing the Future of Our Forests & Cities call-to-action to national policymakers.
  • Contacts: Paul King <[email protected]>

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Catalyzing Low-Carbon and Resilient Buildings

  • Organised by: IFC (World Bank)
  • Time: 14:00-17:30
  • Closed door
  • Description: A roundtable discussion with key industry stake holders. The three hour event will have three separate sessions for: • Developers/asset owners • Commercial banks • Insurance companies The objective for this roundtable is for key real estate industry stakeholders to share their experiences and views which would be assimilated to arrive at key recommendations for industry and policy makers. It is an opportunity for IFC and its partners to demonstrate impactful work that they have done which could serve as case-studies showing levers and best-practices. The key outcomes of each of the three Pre-Forum IFC meetings would be: • To identify some key levers for decarbonizing the buildings sector. • To articulate recommendations for policy measures that would use those levers for implementation. • Identify different levers and recommendations that would be suitable in developed versus emerging markets.

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GlobalABC Higher Education Institutions – inaugural working group meeting

  • Organised by: GlobalABC Higher Education Institutions
  • Closed door
  • Description: This inaugural HEI workshop aims to discus how to connect world leading and locally relevant research and education efforts to support the GlobalABC hubs and to develop specific task areas.

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Both 5 and 6 March

T'es COP ou pas CAP / To COP or not to COPE? (Click to register)

  • Organised by: Construction 21
  • Time: Full day
  • Open door
  • Description: Construction21 will host a one-day event on how buildings and cities can meet the three interconnected challenges of resilience, adaptation and decarbonization. The event will highlight France's ambitions in terms of regulations and solutions, as well as take a look at major international projects. The day will be preceded by site visits organised with Alliance HQE-GBC.
  • Venue: 5 March: in Paris and around; 6 March: SMA-BTP, 8 rue Louis Armand, 75015 Paris
  • Contacts: Alexia Robin [email protected]
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International expert workshop of the One Planet Network Flagship Initiative: Mainstreaming Circularity in the Construction Sector Leveraging the Power of Public Procurement

  • Organised by: One Planet Network
  • Time: 5th March: 9am-5pm; 6th March: 9am-1pm
  • Closed door
  • Description: This event will bring together the leadership of One Planet Network Flagship Initiative “Mainstreaming Circularity in the Construction Sector Leveraging the Power of Public Procurement”, which supports the implementation of the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production. This event is organized in coordination with the GlobalABC and is contributing to the global efforts of the Buildings Breakthrough. With most countries spending more than 50 per cent of their public procurement expenditure, which itself can represent up to 30 per cent of GDP, on buildings and infrastructure, national and local governments play a key role in steering the transformation of the construction sector as regulators, investors, and urban and territorial planners.

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In addition, the French Institute for Buildings' Performance (IFPEB) is organising a side-event alongside the Buildings and Climate Global Forum, on 7 March 2024, titled "Building’s Energy Performance: the potential of result-oriented policies to reach 2050 goals, the case of France". It is a close-door standing lunch presentation. However, Forum delegations and GlobalABC members, especially policymakers and those who work with policymakers, can express their interest in participating in this event.