GlobalABC Annual Report 2025: 10 years of Global Action for Zero-Emission and Resilient Buildings

In 2025, GlobalABC focused on strengthening the policy, institutional and technical foundations needed to accelerate the transition to a zero-emission, resilient and affordable built environment. Through its global membership of more than 400 members, including 71 countries, the Intergovernmental Council for Buildings and Climate (ICBC), and its Hubs and Action Groups, the Alliance supported governments and stakeholders to advance climate ambition, strengthen enabling environments, and integrate buildings and construction more effectively into national and international climate processes.

A key priority during the year was supporting countries to incorporate buildings and construction into climate planning and policy frameworks. Technical assistance, guidance and stakeholder engagement contributed to progress on NDC development, climate action roadmaps, implementation planning and sector-specific policy development in countries including Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal. GlobalABC also advanced practical tools, recommendations and frameworks on priority topics such as sustainable materials, climate finance, adaptation, procurement, and near-zero emission and resilient buildings.

A major milestone was the operationalisation of the ICBC as the principal political platform for international cooperation on buildings and construction. Through ministerial and technical engagement, governments advanced common priorities, endorsed and acknowledged GlobalABC tools and recommendations, and strengthened international coordination on sector transformation. Complementing this work, GlobalABC's Hubs and Action Groups developed guidance, recommendations and implementation tools while fostering collaboration between governments, industry, financial institutions, academia and civil society.

The Annual Report presents GlobalABC's activities and achievements in 2025 against its strategic objectives and programme priorities. It covers progress in political engagement and international cooperation, national climate planning and policy development, technical guidance and knowledge products, stakeholder collaboration, and implementation support across the buildings and construction sector, reflecting the Alliance's progress over the reporting period and its continued commitment to transforming the sector.

The Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction (Buildings-GSR), published by UNEP and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC), provides an annual snapshot of the sector's progress globally. It reviews the status of policies, finance, technologies and solutions to monitor alignment with the Paris Agreement goals. 

The 2025/2026 edition — Building fast. Falling short — is the 10th edition of this flagship publication. It benchmarks progress through the Global Buildings Climate Tracker across emissions, building energy codes, renewable energy, green building certification, and investment in energy efficiency, covering climate resilience, housing affordability, and the 2050 Buildings Breakthrough and Déclaration de Chaillot. Despite a decade of progress, the sector remains off track, accounting for 37 per cent of global emissions and nearly 50 per cent of global material extraction, as decarbonisation stalls and construction outpaces climate action.

Kenya Buildings & Construction Roadmap provides a shared vision for decarbonising the buildings sector through innovative stakeholder-led bottom up practices, collaboration, partnerships, and accountability. It demonstrates what can be achieved when public and private sectors work together towards a common goal – to create an industry that builds responsibly and sustainably.

The Global Buildings Performance Network are honoured to work alongside Kenya State Department for Public Works, Architectural Association of Kenya, research institutions, and industry partners to accelerate this transformation. By aligning our actions with Kenya’s national goals and focusing on implementable actions and measurable outcomes, we can deliver real change, today and for generations to come.

Learn more here: https://gbpn.org/towards-sustainable-kenya/

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) will take place in Belém, Brazil, from November 10-21.

UNEP has releasing a new COP30 Factsheet Series exploring the most critical adaptation and mitigation themes shaping today’s global climate agenda. The series equips readers with clear, accessible insights into the debates, decisions, and expected outcomes across priority themes.  

Designed to help negotiators, policymakers, journalists, and observers navigate the road to Belém, each factsheet takes stock of where we stand today and—crucially—previews what to expect at the conference. What issues are rising up the agenda? Where is progress being made? What major outcomes could emerge from the negotiations?

This factsheet covers the buildings and construction sector. Additional topics covered in the series include finance, the Baku–Belém Roadmap, mitigation work programme, adaptation loss and damage, technology negotiations, and key sectors such as cooling, forests, transport, and more. 

Launched by the Intergovernmental Council for Buildings and Climate (ICBC) at COP30 in Belém on November 11th 2025, this ministerial commitment positions housing affordability and climate sustainability as interconnected priorities. It calls on governments to integrate climate action into housing policy, establish innovative financing mechanisms for sustainable affordable housing, and align national policies with climate goals by 2030–2035.

The Building Market Brief - India provides a comprehensive analysis of India’s rapidly transforming building and construction sector, driven by population growth, urbanization, and evolving consumer preferences. Developed under the Digital Building Passports project, this report is a collaborative effort by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the CUES Foundation (Netherlands), and OFFSETFARM, with support from Mahindra Lifespace Developers and funding from the German Ministry of Development Cooperation (BMZ).

As part of the UN Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) Data Hub, the report offers critical insights into India’s building sector, highlighting key challenges such as housing shortages, high material consumption, and environmental impacts. The sector accounts for 38% of annual primary energy use, 31% of electricity consumption, and 32% of national GHG emissions, emphasizing the urgent need for sustainable construction solutions.

The study also explores policy initiatives alongside technological advancements in low-carbon materials and construction techniques. A key component of the project is the Digital Building Passport app (CAPSA), which enables automated embodied carbon calculations and assesses the carbon mitigation potential of best-practice materials.

With India’s real estate market projected to grow significantly, this report provides valuable data and strategies for industry stakeholders, policymakers, and sustainability advocates to support the transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient built environment.

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

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.

Policy progress is evident with more comprehensive climate action plans covering buildings and construction in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). However, few align with net-zero operational emissions, and while over 81 countries have building energy codes, many are outdated.Investment in building decarbonisation exceeded US$285 billion in 2022 but is expected to decline in 2023, largely due to a less favourable investment environment due to rising costs. The necessary increase in investments falls short of the net-zero targets for new and existing buildings by 2030 and 2050, respectively.

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.

The GBCT shows a negative rebound since 2020 in the decarbonization of the buildings sector, with increased energy intensity and higher emissions. The gap between the actual climate performance of the sector and the necessary decarbonization pathway is widening. The lack of structural or systemic decarbonisation improvement in the building sector leaves its emissions reductions vulnerable to external factors.

To reach the goals of net-zero carbon emission buildings for new buildings by 2030 and existing buildings by 2050, stronger policies are needed to enhance energy efficiency and address carbon emissions from building materials and construction. National efforts are crucial, with countries forming coalitions to share best practices and promote low-carbon construction.

This year, the deep dive chapters are the following: Adaptation and resilient construction methods; Innovations in business cases (renovation and green building construction industry); and Nature-based solutions and biophilic design.

A welcome development in 2023 was the Buildings Breakthrough launched at COP28, to coordinate between countries to make clean technologies and sustainable solutions in the buildings and construction sector the most affordable, accessible, and attractive option in all regions by 2030.

Looking forward to 2024, the focus must be on tangible emission reductions, enhancing building performance, increasing renewable energy use and addressing housing and energy access disparities. Despite the complexities, strategic partnerships can facilitate the shift to an efficient, resilient and whole life net-zero carbon global building stock.

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It is estimated that around 80% of cities worldwide do not have affordable housing options for the majority of their population (1). The world needs to provide two billion homes over the next 75 years — meaning 96,000 new affordable homes need to be built every day (2).

The global housing crisis, interlinked with the dual crises of unprecedented climate change and biodiversity loss, is one of the greatest social challenges we are facing today. Housing infrastructure can continue to exacerbate problems or can be part of the solution. The global building and construction industry needs a monumental shift.

The ‘Sustainable and Affordable Housing’ report challenges the widespread perception that affordable and sustainable housing is not a mass market solution. Many of the solutions to the global housing crisis already exist. The case study content from five regions highlights cutting-edge built environment projects, making sustainable and affordable housing a reality for all — from 3D printed homes in Kenya, community engagement and collaborative financing models in Nepal, to disaster-resilience retrofits in the Philippines. 

Through this publication, WorldGBC champions a unified vision for sustainable, affordable housing and spotlights best practice worldwide to demonstrate opportunities for success that could be scaled for greater impact. An analysis of case study data derives key calls to action for policy makers, the finance community, community approaches, and the design and construction industry.

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