According to the 2020 Buildings Global Status Report, the buildings and construction sector accounts for 35% of final energy use and 38% of energy and process-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions globally. The new report by the Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE) shows that the retail real estate (RRE) sector will have to play a major part in achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

The report is a status quo analysis of existing policy and market approach to climate change actions and strategies relevant to the RRE sector, and represents the starting point for developing a common vision and language on how to decarbonise the sector. It aims to identify relevant policy and market developments that can inform tailored recommendations to industry players and policy makers in order to be in line with the Paris Agreement.

The India Energy Outlook 2021 is a new special report from the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook series. The report explores the opportunities and challenges ahead for India as it seeks to ensure reliable, affordable and sustainable energy to a growing population. The report examines pathways out of the crisis that emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as longer-term trends, exploring how India’s energy sector might evolve to 2040 under a range of scenarios. The report is presented as a series of ‘deep dives’ exploring cross-cutting issues, including:

- The effects of economic growth, urbanisation and industrialisation on India’s fuel and sector-level demand trends.
- The evolution of mobility, including electrification, in the context of growing urbanisation.
- The prospects for expanding energy access, especially in rural areas.
- Flexibility requirements in the power sector under ambitious renewable capacity targets and a significant rise in electricity demand – especially from air conditioners.
- Challenges and opportunities for clean energy finance, including investments in solar energy and batteries
- The supply and infrastructure required for an expanded role for natural gas, along with a sector-level assessment of its potential.
- Impacts of India’s energy policy choices on energy access, air pollution and carbon emissions.
- India’s growing importance in global energy issues, and the implications of its development trajectory on international energy supply, trade and investment.

This report is the first output of the GlobalABC “adaptation” working group (see appendix methodology), launched at COP24 in Katowice. During the Global- ABC meeting in Rabat in October 2018, the representatives of the Kingdom of Morocco and GlobalABC members expressed their mutual wish to see the challenges of climate change adaptation and the benefits of initiatives in the real-estate, building, and construction sector (referred to in this report as the RBC sector) be put in the spotlight, as up until now they have not been given due attention. The report was coordinated by the Green Building Observatory (OID, Paris) with the support of the French Ministry of Ecological Transition.

Climate change is regarded as the major issue that humanity will face this century. Extreme weather events and failure to implement climate-change mitigation and adaptation actions are the two greatest risks that the global economy will face in terms of their likelihood and impact, according to the World Economic Forum (2019).

The built environment is particularly at risk from climate change, and as such so are the people living and working within buildings. Governments and all actors along the buildings and construction value chain therefore need to take action, as climate risks pose a real threat to the lives and economic activities of people. Buildings as long-term assets should be resilient to climate change, and also to other future risks such as pandemics and potential behavior changes.

The report is divided into: 

PART 1: Why Does Adapting Buildings to Climate Change Matter?

The first section of the report deals with global challenges regarding adaptation of the built environment: definitions and relevance, macro-economic impacts (costs of adaptation vs non-adaptation) as well as the strong links between adaptation and mitigation in the RBC sector.

PART 2: Adapting the RBC Sector to Climate Change

The second section highlights ongoing and necessary changes in the RBC sector to better integrate adaptation challenges: processes based on the building lifecycle, risk assessments, regulatory frameworks and stakeholder engagement, i.e. creating an enabling environment for change. This section introduces concrete actions to this end.

PART 3: Frameworks of Action

The third and most important section presents a framework for suggested action for key actors in the RBC sector. It summarizes specific challenges faced by each actor in adapting buildings to climate change and identifies the current global state of their practices along with recommendations for each stakeholder group in order to improve the adaptation of buildings to climate change. The action plan was informed by surveys and interviews held with relevant stakeholders and has been reviewed by sectoral organisations. Five challenges and five recommendations are presented, selected in order to focus on the most critical issues.

Download now the full report or the specific sections below! 

Real estate organizations recognize the strong business case for incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into their normal business operations with the increasing public focus on climate change and its impacts, new policies affecting building energy performance, and pressure from investors. In addition, strong returns from utility savings, tenant demand, new opportunities to access capital, and other value-creation opportunities are spurring investment in sustainability and energy efficiency.

Building on the leading sustainability work that Greenprint member organizations have been implementing since 2009, this Blueprint is for real estate owners and investors looking to develop or accelerate a sustainability program, and developers looking for ways to integrate sustainability into their overall development strategy.

The Efficient Buildings Community has just developed a new set of recommendations for European and National decision-makers. 

The eight recommendations are grounded in the experience of the Mediterranean local authorities and they aim to bring the lessons learned in the discussion about the next generation of energy policies: the European Green Deal, issued by the Commission last December, and the recovery plans in response to Covid-19, currently underway in each Member State. 

The Efficient Buildings Community calls for a stronger vision for building-related policies, a proper "Mediterranean efficient buildings action programme“. Policy-makers need to acknowledge that energy efficiency in the Mediterranean countries relies on other parameters than in the rest of the EU.

Background and objective
This paper develops a methodology to track decarbonisation in the buildings and construction sector
worldwide. A set of individual indicators is used to identify trends in decarbonisation action and
impact. The methodology is based on the OECD approach for developing composite indicators1 and is
applied to data collected from the existing GlobalABC Global Status Reports and other sources to
create the Buildings Climate Tracker or ‘decarbonisation index’, a composite indicator. The approach
and methods are described, discussed and extended in this paper.

Objective of the tracker
The primary objective of the tracker is to show the efforts made towards – and the impact of –
decarbonisation of buildings worldwide, using suitable and reliable data aggregated in a transparent,
consistent and continuous way.
In the context of the tracker, the definition of the term “decarbonisation” and its measurement go
beyond mere observations of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reflect the efforts made by
policymakers, governments, regulators, industries, and other key institutional and regional actors
towards the decarbonisation of the building and construction sector globally.

Scope of the tracker
The Buildings Climate Tracker focusses on the decarbonisation of buildings worldwide. In its current
state it considers indicators related to building construction, use and renovation, but it excludes the
demolition phase and social indicators such as living conditions or housing shortages.
While the focus is on the climate change mitigation of the building sector (i.e. reduction of CO2
emissions or energy savings), the tracker also contains information about adaptation and resilience to
climate change. Some measures such as building codes incorporate and address all three aspects – i.e.
mitigation, adaptation and resilience – by outlining the requirements for new and existing buildings
to face current and future risks accordingly.