Buildings are a sleeping giant for climate action. In 2021, buildings accounted for 37% of global energy- and process-related emissions (UNEP, 2022).  At the same time, buildings are particularly vulnerable to extreme climate events such as floods, storms, heatwaves, droughts, soil erosion, or wildfires. Climate-resilient buildings – promoting flexible design, passive cooling, nature-based solutions, local materials, or water conservation – are vital in achieving mitigation and adaptation objectives (Bourgault, Zinecker, & Mitra, 2021).

But climate action on buildings is lagging. Of the USD 5.8 trillion spent in the buildings and construction sector in 2019, only a fraction (2.6%) went towards building energy efficiency. Rising inflation rates have diverted the attention of many governments. In 2022, a modest 2% increase was estimated for investment in energy efficiency in buildings (UNEP, 2022).

To date, 194 countries have submitted Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat. This report analysed these submissions, looking for buildings-related measures, and classified each of these measures along three categories: (1) Mitigation; (2) Adaptation; and (3) Cross-cutting measures. For each of these, this report created subcategories such as energy efficiency in design, building structure, or financing.

Going forward, this study finds out that an analysis and benchmarking of the NDCs on specific topics may help introduce an even more effective next generation of NDCs on buildings. At the same time, there is a need to quantify targets, and back them up with financing. The sheet of NDCs used for this analysis is available for further research and policy work.

Please read the full report here.

Buildings should provide safe, comfortable, and healthy environments for people to live and work. They are an essential component of societies and economies, housing critical infrastructure necessary to keep governments and businesses in operation. At the same time, buildings are the first line of defense against natural hazards and climate impacts for the general population. The scope of this report is limited to regulatory frameworks in Sub-Saharan Africa countries, with a focus on buildings rather than on specialized construction types such as infrastructure for water, energy, transport, or communications. The report focuses on the technical aspects of the regulatory frameworks: market and financial solutions fall beyond its scope. Chapter 1 of the report describes the components, concepts, and desired outcomes of building regulatory frameworks. Chapter 2 explains the evolution of the building regulation environment in Sub-Saharan Africa and the region-specific hazards and risks that the regulatory environment must respond to. Chapter 3 presents data on the building regulatory environment for each country in the region. It covers all aspects of the building regulatory cycle: from the legally adopted building regulations that exist, to what they cover, to the implementation of regulations through compliance and enforcement mechanisms. Chapter 4 offers guidance on how to improve and update building regulatory frameworks. Chapter 5 contains region-specific conclusions and recommendations for strengthening building regulatory frameworks because of the analyses carried out in Chapters 3 and 4. Additionally, Appendix A summarizes key data for each country.

Rapid urbanisation and climate change are two of the major challenges of our time. People living in cities' poorest areas are agents of change both in terms of climate mitigation and adaptation. This new publication explores the intertwining nature of circular economy, urbanisation and poverty. It looks at how existing approaches of circularity and the informal economy can be taken up and reinforced to find solutions to these challenges.

Cities Alliance has been supporting cities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America to address informality while supporting inclusive and sustainable urban growth.

This publication examines how circular economy and climate mitigation actions can improve socioeconomic conditions in developing cities, and the role of an integrated, inclusive city planning approach.

Read the publication here

This issue of Danfoss's white papers presents a roadmap for decarbonizing cities. Cities account for two-thirds of global energy consumption and more than 70% of annual global carbon emissions. With more than half of the world’s population living in cities today – a number expected to increase to almost 70% in 2050 – we will not reach the goals of the Paris Agreement without a deep decarbonization of cities.

Read the key messages here.

This report adds a GlobalABC Roadmap for the Arab region, covering 22 countries. This wide approach was taken thanks to UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure’s vision to facilitate a step towards the achievement of the decarbonisation of the whole region. It builds on GlobalABC's Global and Regional Roadmaps for Buildings and Construction, tailoring its strategic approach and examples for operationalisation and implementation to the specific context of the Arab region. A distinctive feature of this roadmap is its response to diverse energy-related status quos in the buildings and construction sector across the region and across the eight activities structuring each GlobalABC roadmap. Different starting points call for different strategies and focal points. For this reason, guidance in this document is presented like a menu for early starters, moderately advanced, or advanced countries. This means Arab countries can pick the most suitable guidance relative to how advanced they evaluate themselves relative to an activity.

Written as part of the EU-funded project syn.ikia, these factsheets from BPIE provide an overview of existing gaps and barriers in the development and market uptake of SPENs, and provides policy recommendations for Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and Norway.

They also map their progress in implementing provisions of the 2018 Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the Energy Efficiency Directive, the Renewable Energy Directive, and Electricity Market Design. Looking at the latest developments in national, regional and municipal policies, three main aspects are included: i) energy performance, ii) renewable energy and energy communities, and iii) digital technologies and demand-side flexibility. The factsheets also list the drivers, potential business models and policy support measures that enable investments and wider uptake of SPENs. The policy mapping and recommendations are based on desk research, ten interviews and two workshops with experts from the private and public sectors, including developers and local authorities involved in projects of SPEN and energy communities.

Read the factsheets here.

This report - Sri Lanka Roadmap for Sustainable Housing and Construction 2020 – 2050 - presents the findings of the Sustainable Building Construction Country Assessment for Sri Lanka (SBC-CA) and a Roadmap for Sustainable Housing and Construction and achieving NDCs in the construction industry in Sri Lanka. It examines the current status, and potential opportunities and challenges for adopting Sustainable Building Construction (SBC) practices and policies. The Country Assessment and the Roadmap are structured on the approach laid out by the ‘Global Alliance for Building Construction (GlobalABC) Roadmap for Buildings and Construction 2020-2050, where 8 Action Areas have been identified for the transition towards sustainability in the Construction Sector: Urban planning, New Buildings, Existing Buildings, Building Operations, Appliances and Systems, Materials, Resilience, and Clean Energy.

Download the roadmap here.

Accounting for nearly 40% of global CO2 emissions and sometimes as much as 70% in large cities, buildings and construction are central to the low-carbon transition. Decarbonising buildings, especially the old stock, through energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy use, not only reduces carbon emissions, but also generates co-benefits in health, energy affordability and the labour market. Additionally, global mega-trends and the transition to a green recovery from COVID-19 provide impetus for stakeholders to take action. Cities and regions have a key role to play and can leverage prerogatives in regulation, public procurement and stakeholder engagement, while addressing multiple governance, capacity and funding gaps. To accelerate and scale up their action, cities and regions need to work with national governments to create an effective governance mechanism. Drawing on the findings of a dedicated survey of cities and regions of all sizes from both OECD and non-OECD countries, this report explains their significant role, explores sub-national policy measures, identifies key obstacles, and provides policy recommendations and a checklist for both national and subnational governments to drive the decarbonisation of buildings in cities and regions.
 

Download the report here!

The GlobalABC is co-lead of the Built Environment Track of the Human Settlements Pathway!

The Human Settlements are one of the Thematic Areas of the Climate Action Pathways, which are a vital part of the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action (MPGCA) tools to enhance climate action and ambition towards fully implementing the Paris Agreement. The Pathways aim to provide a roadmap to help Parties and non-Party stakeholders alike to identify actions needed by 2025, 2030 and 2040 as steps to get to the 2050 vision of a 1.5°C resilient world. In this regard, the climate action pathway for human settlements addresses whole-life carbon mitigation, adaptation and resilience in the built environment, as well as waste and consumption within human settlements.

Restricting climate change to 1.5°C would need “rapid and far-reaching” changes around energy use, industry and buildings design, as well as the wider planning of cities and infrastructure. The buildings and construction sector currently account for almost 40% of global energy and process-related carbon emissions, while around half of buildings that are predicted to exist in 2050 have yet to be built. Continuing in this direction, over 970 cities could be subjected to extreme heat, 500 cities could suffer from lack of water availability, and over 570 cities could be impacted by sea level rise by 2050. If action is not taken today, we risk locking emissions and vulnerability into our buildings and infrastructure that will become increasingly costly to mitigate in the future. Based on this critical observation, the built environment track of the Human Settlements climate action pathway outlines a set of necessary stakeholder (i.e. policy makers, financial institutions, technology providers and innovators, business and service providers and civil society) actions to be taken to accelerate the transition to a net-zero carbon, healthy and resilient built environment.

A large part of the construction sector’s emissions come from building products and materials – referred to as embodied carbon. Embodied carbon is increasingly becoming the focus of regulatory bodies, making it a risk factor for developers and investors to price into construction projects.

This report provides guidance on how to reduce embodied carbon in buildings. The report targets developers and investors who have a unique opportunity to shape demand and drive transformation at the early stages of building projects. By doing so, they can significantly reduce the “financed” emissions across different asset classes they are invested in.

The report provides over 50 embodied carbon-reduction policies and best practices that investors and developers can adopt for their projects and guidance on how to use them. We have grouped each measure into one of the following five categories.

• Create a carbon policy that sets out consistent requirements for all projects to follow.
• Set targets and transparency requirements for projects to meet across all their phases.
• Prioritize circularity – that is, less new building and more reuse and refurbishment.
• Design optimization to use less material and to choose materials with a low carbon footprint.
• Low-carbon procurement to ensure acquisition of materials with a low carbon footprint.

Developers and investors can use the guidance as it stands or adapt it to their needs. The measures and requirements are flexible and can easily be combined with different green building certifications or sustainability reporting systems.