In 2024, the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) continued to strengthen its position as the leading global platform for a zero-emission, efficient, and resilient built environment. Membership rose to 339, including 42 countries—with a 19% growth from the Global South—while the Alliance expanded its impact through high-level convenings, strategic partnerships, and the launch of the Intergovernmental Council for Buildings and Climate (ICBC). From publishing flagship reports and roadmaps to coordinating COP29’s Buildings Pavilion and mobilizing private sector action, GlobalABC is driving systemic change across the buildings sector worldwide.

The 2024 Building and Climate Global Forum Report serves as a valuable resource for reflection and action in the field of buildings and climate. This major event brought together over 1,500 participants from more than 70 countries, fostering dialogue among international experts, government representatives, and private sector leaders.

With a strong focus on innovation, research, and education, the report captures key insights from the plenary and parallel sessions. A dedicated team of experts, students, and alumni contributed to summarizing discussions, ensuring the dissemination of critical knowledge on sustainable development challenges in the built environment.

This initiative was made possible through the collaboration of ADEME (The French Agency for Ecological Transition), École nationale des ponts et chaussées and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC), and the commitment of nearly 50 rapporteurs, whose contributions played a crucial role in the success of this project. The report stands as a testament to collective efforts in advancing sustainable solutions for the buildings and construction sector.

The Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction (Buildings-GSR), 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.

The Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2024-2025 - Not just another brick in the wall highlights progress made on related global climate goals and calls for greater ambition on six challenges, including building energy codes, renewable energy, and financing. Global frameworks and initiatives such as Intergovernmental Council for Buildings and Climate, the Buildings Breakthrough and the Declaration de Chaillot are sustaining momentum towards adopting ambitious climate action plans, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), for net-zero buildings ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belem, Brazil.

Despite this progress, the sector remains a key driver of the climate crisis, consuming 32 per cent of global energy and contributing to 34 per cent of global CO2 emissions. The sector is dependent on materials like cement and steel that are responsible for 18% of global emissions and are a major source of construction waste.

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The Sufficiency Action Hub aims to demonstrate the necessity, feasibility, and social desirability of sufficiency measures in the building sector, fostering a shared understanding across decision-making levels. Its goal is to build a diverse community of stakeholders worldwide, from various sectors of the building value chain, to adapt sufficiency solutions to different contexts, recognizing disparities between the Global North and South. Launched by the French Institute for Building Performance and supported by key institutions like ADEME, the initiative seeks to address the environmental challenges posed by the building sector, which is responsible for 21% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The Action Hub highlights the urgent need for sufficiency measures, advocating for a systemic approach that integrates demand-side policies to reduce resource consumption, mitigate emissions, and ensure social equity. Through international collaboration and the adoption of the "Sufficiency First" principle, the initiative aims to reshape the future of the building sector within planetary boundaries. The Action Hub has recently published a report outlining the key findings of its ongoing work and initiatives.  

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.

The buildings sector offers a pathway for the financial sector to contribute to sustainability including climate and resource efficiency goals. The sector is both at risk and offers one of the largest opportunities for impact; evaluating the risks and rewards of investing in buildings that are energy-efficient and resilient to climate change is the financially responsible approach for commercial banks.

UNEP-FI's publication “Banking on Green Buildings”, written in partnership with the GlobalABC, explores how banks can play a key role in making our buildings more energy efficient and contribute to their climate and resource efficiency goals, including those made under the Principles for Responsible Banking. 

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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.

This report applies network analysis to examine the interdependencies between 75 policy and finance instruments, as well as 22 barriers, to support the transition to net zero carbon buildings. Such a network analysis approach allows us to move beyond case studies to explore potential high-impact pathways for cities to support a low-carbon transition for the building sector effectively.

Developing a systemic representation of the building sector allows us to answer the following questions:

• Which barriers should we prioritize to ensure systemic transformation of the building sector?
• Which instruments should we roll out, and in what sequence?
• What pathways can cities follow to transition to a fully decarbonized building sector?

This report offers initial findings on the general challenges and mechanisms behind the transition towards a net zero carbon buildings sector, helping shed light on concrete pathways cities can implement to decarbonize the building sector.

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Climate Target Setting for Real Estate Sector Financing’ is the first in a series of publications developed by members of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) with the goal of assisting banks by outlining the choices they make when setting climate-related targets for financing in particular sectors of the real economy. This includes key considerations in relation to the scope, portfolio metrics, data, and scenarios, emerging practices, common challenges and policy, data, and other gaps.

For many banks, the commitment they choose to make when joining NZBA requires them to set sectoral decarbonisation targets for their residential and commercial real estate financing. This publication is aimed at these banks in particular. It does not prescribe any particular methodology for banks to use or impose any requirements on NZBA member banks over and above the ones they chose to commit to when becoming a signatory.

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Construction value chains, encompassing the construction and operation of buildings as well as the production of construction materials like cement and steel, contribute to approximately 40 percent of global CO2 emissions. This figure is expected to rise as developing economies, responsible for about two-thirds of these emissions, intensify construction activities for urbanization and development.

IFC is launching this report to guide international efforts to decarbonize construction value chains. Building Green: Sustainable Construction in Emerging Markets was prepared through close collaboration between IFC economists, investment officers, and building and construction sector specialists. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the challenges of reducing carbon emissions from construction value chains in developing countries, but also the considerable opportunities that will come from mobilizing the estimated $1.5 trillion of investment required for this transition.

Read the full report here.