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

This study assessed the prioritisation for the introduction of possible future European EoW criteria for a list of ten pre-selected construction and demolition waste and by-product (CDW) streams. There was a general positive acceptance and willingness among stakeholders to introduce EU-wide EoW criteria. The results showed the highest potential for possible future EU-wide EoW criteria for the waste and by-product streams of aggregates, concrete, fired clay bricks and gypsum, followed by average potential for asphalt, inert insulation, plastic foam insulation, rigid plastics and wood, and a clear outlier for the stream of building products for reuse. It is advisable to address the highest scoring waste streams first in order to achieve a higher impact. From all the stakeholder interactions during this study, it was clear that the majority of stakeholders would be in favour of future European EoW criteria for the CDW streams investigated. The advantages of possible future EU-wide EoW criteria (clear material status, less administration, environmental benefits and improved market) outweighed the disadvantages (market disruption where local EoW criteria already exist and environmental risks). The demand for the reuse of CDW and the acceptance of a possible future EU-wide EoW was widely supported by all stakeholder groups. The existence of standards for CDW and the existence of some national and regional CDWrelated EoW criteria also showed the urgency and need for EU-wide EoW criteria in the future. Some stakeholders emphasised the need for future European EoW criteria for CDW to recognise existing national and regional criteria in order to minimise or reduce bureaucratic burden. In addition, based on stakeholder input, the introduction of EU-wide EoW criteria for all CDW streams is expected to increase market potential and sales. An important observation was that for inert waste streams there is potential for grouping, e.g. aggregates, asphalt, fired clay bricks and concrete, in future European EoW criteria. This has also been applied in national legislation in several EU Member States. It is recommended to further assess whether grouped future EU-wide EoW criteria would have a higher impact than ungrouped criteria. In general, the input provided a positive picture of the potential environmental and economic impacts associated with the introduction of EU-wide EoW criteria for CDW, together with a positive market attitude. The results of the environmental and human health impact regarding an increase in recycling for gypsum, fired clay bricks. In addition, it should be noted that construction and demolition is by far the largest single waste and by-product stream in the EU and therefore there would be a large potential for positive environmental impacts if recycling rates were improved. The results of this study provided a solid background for the European Commission to plan possible further steps towards EU-wide End-of-Waste criteria for CDW.

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The new Finnish Construction Act includes obligations concerning sustainable construction that stress carbon reduction and longevity of buildings. The latter contains a new essential technical requirement concerning the lifecycle performance of a building. The lifecycle performance comprises durability, adaptability and reusability. Thus they also have impacts on the use value and economic value of buildings.

The basic condition for the management of lifecycle performance is that in construction projects precise and verifiable requirements can be set for lifecycle performance. This in turn requires that the lifecycle performance and indicators for them have been defined. The Ministry of the Environment started an expert process in 2022 that aims to further specify the concepts related to lifecycle performance and present a summary and development proposals for the evaluation, planning and guidelines concerning lifecycle performance.

This report presents some of the content produced in the expert process and proposes that, after having been further specified, lifecycle performance should be more systematically incorporated into the procurements and guidance of construction. The report lays the foundation for a systematic approach to lifecycle planning and gives recommendations for further development opportunities related to the topic.

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Circle Economy launched the first Circularity Gap Report in 2018 because we recognised the need for improved metrics to lead impactful action. The Report, which will be launched annually, will continue to provide insights into the circular state of the world and additionally focus on specific aspects of circularity. From launching the first global metric in 2018, the industry focus in 2019, to the country perspective in 2020. The focus will be on the topics Circle Economy feel are vital to drive action or where momentum is building.

The main goal of the Global Circularity Gap Report is to provide key players that can implement the circular economy with the insights, data, knowledge and network to accelerate change.  

The Circularity Gap Report 2024 identifies the key enablers of policy, finance and labour to accelerate progress towards the circular economy.

Following the “build back better” principle, BPIE presents in this report six investment criteria to guide a sustainable reconstruction of Ukraine's heavily damaged built environment. The report calls on multilateral donors and the Ukrainian government to allocate funding to projects that meet ambitious energy efficiency, renewable energy, climate adaptation, and circularity criteria.

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This brochure introduced the Sustainable Buildings and Construction Programme from 2015-2022, One of the six programmes established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) serving as the Secretariat of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP) and its One Planet Network (OPN). SBC was led by the Ministry of the Environment Finland, UNEP and RMIT University from Melbourne, Australia. The target of the programme, as indicated, is to bring attention to the role and importance of circularity in the built environment, and of the Global South to lock-in sustainable and circular approaches in construction. It helped map circularity indicators in the buildings and construction sector against the SDGs.

The legacy of the One Planet Network (OPN) Sustainable Buildings and Construction (SBC) Programme continues as Circular Built Environment (CBE) sub-working group of the Materials Hub of the Global Alliance of Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC). CBE builds on the momentum that the OPN SBC programme set during 2015-2022. The work continues through a partnership between the GlobalABC and the 10YFP/OPN. The GlobalABC advances international co-operation related to sustainable buildings and construction. It is a community of stakeholders from different parts of the world representing the entire buildings and construction value chain. The brochure introduced the focused aread of the CBE, and its main mission.

Revalu is a material data platform that enables to assess the impact across the design phase. It provides access to Europe’s largest EPD library and integrates 3rd party-verified data into existing workflows. It also offers climate insights, material innovation hub, and efficient documentation for ESG or LCA reporting. 

In the last 18 months, Revalu engaged with over 380 stakeholders across the industry to understand how they are addressing the current challenges of transitioning towards a more sustainable built environment and identified that the significant portion of the built environment's emissions stems from the choice of materials, with industry standards being notably polluting. Although alternatives exist, their environmental benefits are challenging to assess without clear data.

Furthermore, material data and sustainability resources are not uniformly available to everyone. Larger architectural firms can allocate resources to time-consuming explorations and collaborate with sustainability experts, whereas smaller firms and solo architects struggle to keep pace, resulting in a widening knowledge gap that hinders collective movement towards more conscious practices. 

Thus this material data platform is designed to empower all architects, regardless of firm size, with reliable data right at the design stage — where impactful decisions are made. 

Please try it out here.

In the quest to establish and enforce Passive House building codes that align with sustainability and energy efficiency goals, a comprehensive guide has been developed by The Passive Housing Network to shed light on the best practices in the implementation process. This report presents a roadmap for achieving the desired codes, emphasizing the critical need for market confidence, professional competence, and a robust supply chain to support their successful integration.

The findings of this research reveal a structured, four-step approach that, when executed in the proper sequence, can consistently bring Passive House building standards into practice:

• Alternate Pathways: Eliminate the hindrances created by the necessity of developing two distinct energy models. Advocate for the approval of Passive House models as an alternative compliance pathway.
• Passive House Incentives: Institute incentives aimed at bolstering industry capacity, expanding product supply chains, and reinforcing market confidence in Passive House construction.
• Add PH Reach & Stretch Codes: Introduce OPTIONAL reach or stretch codes for local jurisdictions, offering them the flexibility to adopt and implement these codes.
• Transform Baseline Codes: Once a substantial foundation of market confidence, professional competence, and a robust product supply chain is firmly established, revise the baseline codes to deliver desired Passive House outcomes.

It's worth noting that this process, from inception to completion, was successfully executed in Brussels within a span of just seven years. Additionally, Scotland is on the verge of accomplishing a similar feat. Massachusetts is following suit, with a strategic plan mirroring this trajectory. In cases where energy codes are locally governed, cities such as Denver find themselves in a favorable position to implement these steps ahead of state and national codes.

For more in-depth insights, practical examples, and a thorough breakdown of these four essential steps, we encourage you to delve into the full report. It offers a comprehensive guide for those committed to advancing Passive House building codes and fostering a more sustainable and energy-efficient future.

Please read the full briefing here.

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.

In collaboration with UN Environment Programme, One Planet network - 10YFP, UNDP, and UN Climate Change, a Digital Toolbox for Building Circularity into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) has just been launched at the Middle East & North Africa Climate Week.

This “Building Circularity into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - A Practical Toolbox” aims to support countries both in the global north and global south to identify, prioritize, implement and track circular economy interventions for increased ambition and implementation of their NDCs.

The toolbox aims to provide policymakers with a methodology, resources, and tools to help: 

1. Assess and identify GHG emissions hotspots from material use to prioritize sectors and/or sub-sectors in the NDC for circular economy interventions for increased climate ambition;
2. Assess and select circular economy interventions in prioritized sectors/sub-sectors for the NDC; 
3. Identify policy instruments and indicators for the implementation of selected circular economy interventions in the NDC; and
4. Track and report progress in the national Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) under the Paris Agreement.  

The toolbox is organized in four stages to leverage a country’s policy cycle. Each stage includes a set of steps and key questions to consider as well as tools and case studies. An overview of the stages and steps is below. 

Please read the full report here.