Beyond
Beyond foundations
foundations
Mainstreaming sustainable solutions to cut
emissions from the buildings sector

2023Global
GlobalStatus
StatusReport
Reportfor
for
Buildings
Buildingsand
andConstruction
Construction© 2024 United Nations Environment Programme
ISBN: 978-92-807-4131-5
Job number: CLI/2621/NA
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Suggested citation: United Nations Environment Programme (2024). Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction: Beyond foundations:
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Production: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

Acknowledgements
The Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction was prepared by Prof. Ian Hamilton and Dr. Harry Kennard from
University College London (UCL) and Columbia University, Oliver Rapf, Dr. Jerson Amorocho, Dr. Sybil Steuwer, Dr. Judit
Kockat and Dr. Zsolt Toth from the Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE), with contributions from Dr. Chiara
Delmastro, Dr. Rafael Martinez Gordon and Dr Ksenia Petrichenko from the International Energy Agency (IEA), who provided
data on key energy, emissions and activity metrics for the buildings sector. Other contributors to the report are Dr Harsh
Jatkar and Dr Shih-Che Hsu from UCL; Jade Si-Ahmed and Daniel Eida from Columbia University; Dr Silke Krawietz from
SETA Network; Dr Liliana Campos Arriaga from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH,
Catriona Brady, Rebecca Moir, Audrey Nuget, Carolina Montano-Owen, Sara Kawamura and Stephen Richardson from World
Green Building Council (WGBC); Chloe Decazes, Alicia Regodon Puyalto and Geoffrey Morgan from UN Office for Project
Services (UNOPS); Angelica Ospina from Colombia Green Building Council. Support was provided by Jonathan Duwyn, Mona
Mohammed, Marvin Lauenburg, and Yijun Cui from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/Global Alliance for
Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC).
The contents of this report do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of UNEP or contributory organizations. Mentionof a commercial entity or product in this publication does not imply endorsement by UNEP. The designations employed andthe presentations of material do not imply the expressions of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNEP or contributoryorganizations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitationof its frontiers or boundaries or the designation of its name, frontiers, or boundaries. The mention of a commercial entity or
product in this publication does not imply endorsement by UNEP.

The authors would like to thank the following members and partners who supported this report with their important
contributions, input, comments and reviews:
Martha Sofía Niño Sulkowska, Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Mexico
Audrey Nugent, World Green Building Council
Mina Hasman, Climate Framework
Luis Alberto Vega, Alianza por la Eficiencia Energética
Carlos Carrazco, Alianza por la Eficiencia Energética
Carlos Bohorquez, Municipality of Medellin, Colombia
Moses Itanola, BIM Africa
Robyn Pender, Historic England, Climate Heritage Network
Roland Hunziker, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)York Ostermeyer, CUES Foundation
Melissa Lott, Centre on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University
Vincent Martinez, Architecture 2030
Ashraf Kamal, Housing and Buildings National Research Centre, Egypt
Peter Graham, Global Buildings Performance Network
Jérôme Bilodeau, Buildings Division, Office of Energy Efficiency, Government of Canada
Ludwig Labuzinski, Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH (dena)

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |iii

Foreword

The world is not on track to achieve the Paris Agreement goals, a stark fact highlighted by
UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report 2023. It underscored the urgency of tackling the climate crisis,with recent years seeing a disturbing acceleration in the number, speed and scale of broken
climate records.
This troubling state of affairs is reflected in the buildings and construction sector. For yet
another year, the Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction tells us that overall
energy demand and emissions of the buildings sector continued to grow, rising by about 1 percent from 2021.
The need to take action has never been greater: about 60 per cent of the buildings that will
exist by 2050 have not been built yet and 20 per cent of existing building stock needs to berenovated to zero-carbon-ready by 2030. At COP28, twenty-eight countries launched the
Buildings Breakthrough, committing to make near-zero emission and resilient buildings the
new normal by 2030.
There is much to do. There is a still a lack of investment in decarbonizing buildings, whilecurrent global economic instability is further slowing green building investment. Innovative
business models and well-defined metrics to guide decision making are needed, along withdigitalization to improve data. The introduction of reporting requirements for the financial
sector through regulation will also incentivize green investments.
While energy efficiency measures are a high priority, they must be combined with material
efficiency strategies. Embodied carbon emissions still represent more than a quarter of thesector’s emissions and are set to grow. The challenges of a changing climate also need to betaken on board – retrofitting existing buildings and designing new ones with climate extremes
in mind is essential.
As per article 4.9 of the Paris Agreement, every country must commit to new national climate
plans aligned with the 1.5°C limit by 2025. Most National Determined Contributions (NDCs)
still lack clear actions and targets towards building energy efficiency and adaptation measures.
Let us seize this moment to raise ambition levels in NDCs through actions in the buildings andconstruction sector.

Dechen Tsering
Director a.i., Climate Change Divisioniv| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................................................................................. iii
Foreword................................................................................................................................................................................................... iv
Table of Contents....................................................................................................................................................................................... v
List of tables.............................................................................................................................................................................................. vi
List of figures............................................................................................................................................................................................ vi
List of boxes.............................................................................................................................................................................................. vi
Abbreviations........................................................................................................................................................................................... vii
Support statements................................................................................................................................................................................ viii
Executive Summary.................................................................................................................................................................................. ix
Chapter 1: Buildings and construction sector in review: A reality check...................................................................................................1
Chapter 2: Global buildings and construction status............................................................................................................................... 19
2.1 Building construction trends............................................................................................................................................................... 19
2.1.1 Social Impact across the Built Environment...................................................................................................................................................... 22
2.2 Energy in the buildings and construction sector trends....................................................................................................................24
2.2.1 Improvements in building heating and cooling technologies continue to expand.................................................................................. 27
2.3 Emissions in the buildings and construction sector trends..............................................................................................................29
Chapter 3: Sustainable buildings and construction policies....................................................................................................................31
3.1 Leading national policies.....................................................................................................................................................................31
3.2 Building codes.....................................................................................................................................................................................32
3.2.1 Modernisation building energy codes................................................................................................................................................................. 35
3.3 Nationally Determined contributions updates...................................................................................................................................38
3.4 Building certification systems............................................................................................................................................................ 41
Chapter 4: Investment and financing for sustainable buildings..............................................................................................................43
4.1 Energy efficiency investment in buildings.........................................................................................................................................44
4.2 Financing of energy efficiency and zero carbon buildings: a case study of the European Union...................................................46
Chapter 5: Global Buildings Climate Tracker...........................................................................................................................................49
Chapter 6: Buildings climate policy gap review.......................................................................................................................................53
6.1 Emissions.............................................................................................................................................................................................54
6.1.1 Buildings sector energy related emissions......................................................................................................................................................... 54
6.2 Impact..................................................................................................................................................................................................55
6.2.1 Building sector energy intensity............................................................................................................................................................................ 55
6.2.2 Renewable share in final energy demand in buildings................................................................................................................................... 56
6.3 Action...................................................................................................................................................................................................57
6.3.1 Cumulative energy efficiency investment in buildings................................................................................................................................... 57
6.3.2 Green building certification................................................................................................................................................................................... 58
6.3.3 NDC considering buildings extensively.............................................................................................................................................................. 59
6.3.4 Building codes ZEB-aligned................................................................................................................................................................................... 60
Chapter 7: Deep dive - Adaptation and resilient construction methods.................................................................................................. 61
7.1 Building a water-resilient future for everyone, everywhere...............................................................................................................63
7.2 Resilience in Building Codes in Latin America and the Caribbean....................................................................................................65
Chapter 8: Deep Dive - Innovations in business cases (renovation and green building construction industry)......................................66
8.1 Addressing root causes: central planning and coordination of the renovation...............................................................................66
8.2 Completely digitalized and standardized renovation processes......................................................................................................66
8.3 Reducing risks of investments: buildings performance contracting................................................................................................67
Chapter 9: Deep dive - Nature Based Solutions and Biophilic Design......................................................................................................68
9.1 Exploring NBS Technologies...............................................................................................................................................................69
9.2 Biophilia and Biophilic Design.............................................................................................................................................................69
Chapter 10: Roadmaps for buildings and construction............................................................................................................................70
10.1 A new framework for Buildings and Construction Roadmap development....................................................................................72
10.2 National Implementation: Colombia National Roadmap to Net Zero Buildings............................................................................. 74
10.3 Building National coalitions for decarbonizing buildings in Mexico...............................................................................................75
Chapter 11: Buildings Breakthrough .......................................................................................................................................................79
Chapter 12: Key recommendations for policymakers and decisionmakers ............................................................................................80
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................................................................82
Annex: Global Buildings Climate Tracker Method ...................................................................................................................................96
Adjustments to indicators .......................................................................................................................................................................97

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |v

List of figures
Figure 1.

Share of buildings in total
final energy consumptions in
2022 and share of buildings
in global energy and process
emissions in 2022.....................2

Figure 2.

Global building energy codesby type and status.....................x

Figure 3.

GBCT decarbonisation index.x

Figure 4.

Change in construction
activities in selected G20
Countries, 2015-2023

Figure 5.

Emerging and development
economies (EMDE) market
construction activity andfinancial conditions

Observations of the
cumulative investment inenergy efficiency in buildings
and path to get on track

Figure 10.

CO2 emissions in buildings
2010-2022 and share ofbuildings in global energy andprocess emissions in 2022

Figure 21.

Figure 11.

Global building energy codesby type and status

Figure 12.

Mentions of buildings in
Nationally Determined
Contributions (NDCs)

Figure 22. Observations of the growth ingreen building certifications
and path to get on track

Figure 13.

Number of unique NDCs
mentioning buildings by levelof detailFigure 14.

Investment in energy
efficiency in buildings andconstruction

Figure 23. Observations of NDCs
considering buildings
extensively and path to get on
track
Figure 24.

Observations of aggregatedZEB-aligned energy codesand path to get on track

Figure 25.

Threats to buildings underclimate change and available
adaption measures

Figure 6.

Social impact framework

Figure 15.

GBCT’s indicators weights

Figure 7.

Energy consumption inbuildings by fuel, 2010-2022
and share of buildings in total
final energy consumptions in
2022

Figure 16.

GBCT decarbonisation index

Figure 26.

Figure 17.

GBCT observations and pathto get on track by 2030

Scales of water use in thebuilt environment

Figure 27.

Figure 18.

Observations of the CO2
emission of the global
building stock’s operation andpath to get on track

Principles of water
management for the built
environment

Figure 28. Global roadmaps for buildings
and construction

Figure 8.

Total final energy
consumption in buildings

Figure 9.

Residential space cooling
consumption coveredby minimum energy
performance standards byregion, 2000-2022

Figure 19.

Observations of the CO2
emission of the global
building stock’s operation andpath to get on track

Figure 20.

Observations of therenewable share in final
energy demand in buildings
and path to get on track

Table 2.

Changes over time of
mentions of buildings in the
NDCs..............................................
2.......................................................

Figure 29.

GlobalABC Roadmap Action
Framework

Figure 30. Roadmap implementation
process

List of tables
Table 1.

Mentions of buildings in NDCs
at the time of publication of
the Buildings Global Status
Report..........................................2

Table 3.

GBCT’s indicators
observations summary, 20152022.............................................2

Table 4.

GBCT’s indicators goals..........2

List of boxes
Box 1.

Embedding gender equality inthe construction sector

Box 4.

Green Building Certificates in
specific regions

Box 2.

Emissions from bricks andglass

Box 5.

Box 3.

Climate action and the path tonet-zero: New York City andTokyo

Buildings sustainability anddecarbonisation activities
across Mexicovi| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

Abbreviations

BECs

Building Energy Codes

EPBD

Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

ESCos

Energy Service Companies

IEA

International Energy Agency

IDB

Inter-American Development Bank

IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

GlobalABC

Global Aliance for Buildings and Construction

GBCT

Global Building Climate Tracker

GHG

Greenhouse Gas

MEPS

Minimum Energy Performance Standards

NbS

Nature-based Solutions

NDCs

Nationally Determined Contributions

NZE

Net Zero Emissions

UAE

United Arab Emirates

UNEP

United Nations Environment Program

UNFCCC

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UNOPS		

United Nations Office for Project Services

WorldGBCWorld Green Buildings Council

ZEB

Zero Emissions Building

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |vii

Support statements
It’s concerning that investments in building energy efficiency are declining. The
engagement of governments to offer financial incentives and enforce policy
Rasmi Hamzeh
Director
Jordan Renewable
Energy and Energy
Efficiency Fund
(JREEEF) / Ministryof Energy and Mineral
Resources (MEMR),
Jordanregulations is crucial, to accomplish our objectives in this sector. Climate change
will raise energy costs, especially affecting Jordanian households. Energyefficient buildings save individuals from energy poverty and guarantee thestability of their livelihoods. We highly value the Global Status Report and theknowledge base it provides.

Every year, the GSR provides crucial evidence, insights and recommendations
that inform stakeholders´ efforts to increase ambition in the buildings andconstruction sector and to accelerate implementation of the policies andinitiatives that will help us achieve our collective climate goals. Germany is very
glad to continue to support the GlobalABC´s important work in accelerating thetransformation and decarbonization of the buildings sector.

Berthold Goeke
Director General for
Climate Action
Federal Ministry for
Economic Affairs andClimate Action (BMWK)
Germany

Iraq issued codes (The Green Architecture, Thermal Insulation and Natural
Hassan Middib
Director
President of Technical
Directorate/ ArchitectEng.
Ministry of Constructionand Housing &Municipalities Public,
Republic of Iraq

Lighting). Energy Efficiency in Building Code will be prepared. It has begun
implementing sustainable cities, which contain green spaces and take into
account thermal insulation in walls, windows, and roofs. It will complete a buildingthat has (PREEAM). Repairing government institutions and making sustainable.

Le Sénégal, s’engage depuis 2017 dans la promotion des bâtiments durables.
Depuis un an, notre collaboration avec GlobalABC acte notre détermination
à intégrer les meilleures pratiques internationales en matière de bâtiments
durables. Le ministère soutient l’initiative Buildings-GSR, essentielle pourstructurer le secteur. La collaboration étendue vise à créer un réseau fort pour unimpact accru dans la lutte contre le changement climatique.

viii| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Amadou Thiam
Directeur Général dela Construction et del’Habitat
Ministère de l’urbanisme
du logement et del’hygiène publique,
SénégalGlobal Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

Executive Summary
Key messages
The buildings and construction sector
contributes significantly to global climatechange, accounting for about 21 per cent of
global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022,
buildings were responsible for 34 per centglobal energy demand and 37 per cent ofenergy and process-related carbon dioxide(CO2) emissions. Despite a 3.5 per centreduction in energy intensity, overall energy
demand and emissions rose by about one percent from 2021.

Buildings and construction
sector in review
Since the 2022 Global Buildings Status Report,
the construction sector has seen significant
changes. Post-pandemic recovery has spurredconstruction activities, driven by eased supply
chain disruptions and a rebound in housing
demand. However, inflation and global interest
rate hikes have tempered growth, particularly
affecting developing countries like China,
Mexico, Indonesia and India.

Policy progress is evident with morecomprehensive climate action plans coveringbuildings 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.

Geopolitical tensions and conflicts haveadded to global energy market instability,
affecting the construction sector. Despite
these challenges, global efforts to mitigate thesector’s climate impact have been notable,with initiatives like the Buildings Breakthroughat COP28 aiming for a net-zero, resilient andinclusive buildings sector.

Investment in building decarbonisation
exceeded US$285 billion in 2022 but is
expected to decline in 2023, largely due to aless favourable investment environment due
to rising costs. The necessary increase ininvestments falls short of the net-zero targets
for new and existing buildings by 2030 and
2050, respectively.

Looking forward to 2024, the focus must be
on tangible emission reductions, enhancing
building performance, increasing renewableenergy 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-zerocarbon global building stock.

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 issignificant. The GBCT indicates that to alignwith the 2030 milestone, an annual increase often decarbonisation points is now required, asubstantial jump from the six points anticipatedper year starting in 2015.
To reach the goals of net-zero carbon emissionbuildings for new buildings by 2030 andexisting 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 toshare best practices and promote low-carbon
construction.

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |ix

Global buildings and construction status
In 2022, the global buildings sector was a major energy consumer, accounting for 30 per cent of
the final energy demand, primarily for operational needs like heating and cooling. Including theenergy for producing construction materials, this figure rose to 34 per cent. Energy demand in the
sector has grown by just over one per cent annually, with electricity use in buildings increasingfrom 30 per cent in 2010 to 35 per cent in 2022 of total final energy demand, in parallel with a shift
towards renewables.
CO2 emissions from building operations and construction reached new highs in 2022, making up
37 per cent of total global CO2 emissions to just under 10 gigatonnes (Gt) CO2, due to emissions
from buildings operations and material production. This reflected a growth in indirect emissions
related to electricity use to 6.8 GtCO2, while direct emissions from buildings have declined slightly
to three GtCO2. The production of materials used in the construction process for cement, steel
and aluminium added a further 2.5 GtCO2, with brick and glass production contributing around 1.2
GtCO2.
Energy intensity per square meter improved by 3.5 per cent from 2021 to 2022, thanks to betterbuilding codes and fabric performance, especially in colder climates. However, a significant
number of countries are still lack building energy codes. Retrofit rates must increase significantly
to meet the Paris Agreement’s target of a 50 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.

Figure 1 Share of buildings in total final energy consumptions in 2022 (left) and share of buildings in global energy
and process emissions in 2022 (right)
ENERGY DEMAND BY SECTOR 2022

21%
9%
4%

Residential(direct)

6%

Residential(indirect)

Residential

Other

66%

EMISSIONS BY SECTOR 2022

Non-residential
Buildings
constructionindustry

11%

63%

Transport,
Other
industry,
other

3%
7%
3%

7%

Non-residential(direct)
Non-residential(indirect)
Buildings constructionindustry
Bricks and glass(Source: IEA 2023a. Adapted from ‘Tracking Clean Energy Progress’)
Notes: Buildings construction industry refers to materials used in construction, including concrete, steel and aluminium. Other materials
shown separately.

x| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

Sustainable buildings and construction policies
The global policy environment for building sustainability is diverse and evolving. While somenations lack comprehensive strategies for emissions reduction, an increasing number are
implementing regulations to not exceed the 1.5°C global temperature increase threshold. The
European Union, for instance, has revised its Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD)
to mandate zero emission standards for new buildings by 2030, and plans to phase out fossil fuelboilers by 2040. India, attributing 40 per cent of its CO2 emissions to buildings, enacted legislationin 2022 to initiate carbon trading and sustainable building codes.
By 2023, the global number of building codes has grown to 81 for residential and 77 for nonresidential structures, with 80 per cent being mandatory. However, over 30 per cent of these codes
have not been updated since 2015, potentially falling short of high-performance standards. With80 per cent of floor area growth by 2030 expected in developing economies, many lack stringent
energy codes, presenting an opportunity for improved enforcement and alignment with net-zero
CO2 goals.
Recent updates in various countries are aligning with the Paris Agreement and the European
Union’s EPBD. Examples (see Section 3.2) include France’s RE2020, Denmark’s 2023 regulations,
California’s 2022 standards, the United Kingdom 2021 Building Regulations, Singapore’s 2021
Code for Environmental Sustainability, China’s latest energy performance code, and Sri Lanka’s
Energy Efficiency Building Code 2020.
Under the Paris Agreement, governments are expected to enhance their commitments every five
years through their NDCs. As of December 2023, 194 countries and the European Union havesubmitted NDCs, with 48 updates since 2022. However, only 11 updates expanded on buildingrelated actions. For example, the United Arab Emirates targets a 56 per cent reduction in building
emissions by 2030 through updated codes and renewable energy initiatives. Despite these efforts,
G20 nations lack extensive buildings coverage in their NDCs, and overall progress remains modest.

Figure 2 Global building energy codes by type and status(Source: IEA 2023)
Note: Countries with dark ‘red’ outline have adopted updated building energy codes since 2021.Investment and financing for sustainablebuildings

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |xi

Transitioning to net-zero buildings necessitates strategic use of policy and financial tools. By using
policy tools, such as capacity development, mandates and incentives in collaboration with financial
tools, such as grants, equity instruments, risk mitigation tools, contracts, asset finance models andothers, investment barriers in energy-efficiency and low-carbon technologies can be overcome.
Global investment in building energy efficiency rose by approximately 14 per cent in 2021, to
US$285 billion. The increase was largely driven by public investment and Europe’s response
to energy insecurity. Major markets like the United States of America (USA), Germany and Italy
significantly contributed to this increase. However, some countries like China, France and theUnited Kingdom experienced a decrease in efficiency spending due to a slowing construction
sector and changes in government programs. Projections for 2023 suggest a potential slowdownin spending due to increased borrowing costs, economic uncertainty and geopolitical conflicts.
The investment is expected to drop to US$270 billion in 2023. Nevertheless, energy efficiency
investments offer a way to mitigate risk exposure to energy cost volatility and reduce emissions at
the same time. Despite the projected reduction in efficiency spending, investments are increasingly
being directed towards technologies that enable net-zero carbon-ready buildings. However, thelack of knowledge around energy efficiency investment remains a barrier to adopting strategies
that reduce perceived risks associated with these investments.

Global Buildings Climate Tracker
Launched in 2020, the GBCT assesses progress in the decarbonisation of the building sector
from 2015, the year the Paris Agreement was established. The 2022 update of the GBCT paints
a concerning picture: The gap between the current state and the desired decarbonisation path
is significant, amounting to a gap of 40 decarbonisation points. The observations show that the
decarbonisation of the building stock worldwide is lacking significant progress. In fact, the index is
at similar levels in 2022 as at its start in 2015. To align with the 2030 milestone, the GBCT requires
an annual increase of 10 decarbonisation points to get back on track, a substantial jump from the 6
points anticipated per year starting in 2015.
The GBCT uses a seven-part index to measure decarbonisation efforts against a 2050 target, witha 2030 milestone for interim progress. This index includes CO2 emissions from building operations
and six other indicators, divided into impact (energy intensity and renewable energy share) andaction (energy efficiency investments, green building certifications, NDCs for buildings, andbuilding energy codes), with CO2 emissions acting as a multiplier. A detailed view on the indicators
shows that CO2 emissions from buildings operations have increased by 5.4 per cent since 2015,
and the energy intensity reduction is far below the necessary level. Renewable energy use inbuildings has only marginally improved, and the uptake of green building certifications is lagging.
Policy-wise, only a handful of countries have detailed NDCs for buildings or building energy codesaligned with zero energy building (ZEB) principles. To meet the 2050 decarbonisation goal, it’s
imperative to accelerate the implementation of effective measures, and to strengthen the reporting,monitoring, and verification of both the measures and the indicators.

xii| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

Figure 3 GBCT decarbonisation index. Left: Reference path until 2050. Right: Zoom in for the 2015-2022 period
45

39.6

40

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
-10

Zero carbon
building stock goal

34.5

35

29.3

30

23.8

25

18.2

20

0

[points]

6.3

10
5

39.8

12.3

15

0

-0.3 -0.9

-4.3

-1.4

2.8

-1.1 -0.2

-5
2015

2050

Decarbonisation Index

Path to goal

-102015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Decarbonisation Index

Path to goal

(Source: BPIE)

Buildings climate policy gap review
The GBCT has identified a concerning lack of progress in decarbonising the global building stock, acrucial step towards the net-zero carbon goal by 2050. However, opportunities exist to bridge thesegaps through targeted policy actions.
The GBCT’s analysis compares the 2015-2022 period with a decarbonisation reference path basedon the International Energy Agency’s Net-Zero Emissions (NZE) scenario. A proposed ‘get on track’
path suggests an accelerated approach to meet the reference path, provided that efforts are madesoon.
Key indicators include CO2 emissions from building operations, which were 40 per cent above thetarget of 7.0 GtCO2/year in 2022. To realign, a yearly reduction of approximately ten per cent in CO2emissions is necessary until 2030. The energy intensity in the building sector must decrease by
37 per cent from 2015 levels to 96 kWh/m2 by 2030. As of 2022, there was a modest reduction to145.3 kWh/m2, still 15 per cent above the target trajectory.
Renewable energy’s share in buildings’ final energy consumption was only six per cent in 2022,
necessitating an annual increase of 1.5 per cent points to meet the 18 per cent target by 2030. In
2022, the cumulative investment in energy efficiency and high-performance buildings should havebeen 40 per cent (of the goal value) higher, totalling US$2.7 trillion.
Green building certification growth is also slow, reaching only 9.1 points by 2022, comparedto the required 16.3 points. NDCs must incorporate detailed actions for the building sector’s
decarbonisation. As of 2022, only 3.3 per cent of building energy codes meet zero emission
principles, far from the 2030 target of all G20 members and half of the other countries having
respective codes in place.

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |xiii

Adaptation and resilient
construction methods
As global temperatures rise, the built
environment must adapt to more frequent
extreme weather events like storms, floods
and wildfires. The Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change (IPCC) emphasizes theimportance of resilience and adaptation in bothbuilding operations and materials to withstandthese climate impacts.
Existing buildings, particularly high-density
ones, face an increased risk of overheating
as temperatures continue to rise. This is asignificant challenge in low-income economies
where financial constraints and informalbuilding techniques make it difficult toconstruct resilient structures.
Furthermore, sea level rise, intense hurricanes
and flooding present growing challenges.
Buildings in flood-prone areas are particularly
vulnerable, with potential damage impacting
property values, insurance costs andcommunity resilience.
Poor building practices can contributeto maladaptation, leading to increased
energy consumption and greenhouse gas
emissions. To mitigate these risks, it’s crucial
to incorporate sustainable building practices,
including passive design measures, energyefficient materials and strategic design.
Retrofitting existing buildings and designing
new ones with climate extremes in mind isessential. Building codes need to be updated toincorporate future warming estimates and past
extreme weather events. More guidance foradapting buildings to climate change is needed.
Recent European Union guidance outlines
the risks and adaptive measures that can betaken for buildings in the face of increased
heat, storms, heavy precipitation, flooding,
subsidence and drought. It also provides
best practice guidance for policymakers andindustry actors across these risk domains.

xiv| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Innovations in business cases
for renovation and green
building construction industry
The construction sector has among thelowest productivity within the global economy.
It needs to boost building decarbonisation
to address climate challenges, requiring
innovative business models. These models
enhance renovation efficiency and costeffectiveness through central planning andcoordination. For instance, an approach inGermany has achieved a deep renovation of abuilding into a climate-neutral structure in just
22 working days.
Standardizing best practices within building
types and climate zones is crucial for scalability
and replication. Digitalization, including 3D
scanning and printing, is key for understanding
and simulating renovation solutions, enabling
thorough planning and prefabrication ofcomponents, thus saving time, materials andworkforce.
Start ups are emerging as centralized
solution providers, offering services from 3Dscanning to on-site renovation coordination.
They also handle the installation of solarphotovoltaic (PV) systems, combining the rolesof renovation and traditional energy service
providers.
However, these new construction businessmodels need supportive government policies.
For example, in the Netherlands, owners
can charge tenants a fee for net-zero energy
standard renovations when energy bills go
down. In Germany, solution providers benefit
from feed-in tariffs for installed solar-PV. These
innovative models demonstrate a promising
path for future renovation practices, provingthat innovation in the construction sector isachievable and successful.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

Nature-based solutions andbiophilic design

Roadmaps for buildings andconstruction

Nature-based solutions (NbS) and biophilic
design are increasingly used in architecture andurban planning to promote sustainability. NbS
aims to harmonize human-made structureswith nature, leveraging ecosystem functions
for climate regulation, water purificationand habitat creation. An NbS approachcan enhance air and water quality, support
biodiversity, and mitigate urban heat islands.
However, the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) reports that investments
in NbS are still low compared to activities that
harm nature. NbS technologies like green roofs
and constructed wetlands offer sustainable
alternatives to traditional infrastructure,
improving urban resilience against extreme
weather.

The Global Alliance for Buildings andConstruction (GlobalABC), led by UNEP andin collaboration with United Nations Office for
Project Services (UNOPS) and UN-Habitat,
is developing tools and guidance to assist
governments in creating climate action
roadmaps for the buildings and construction
sector.

Implementing NbS requires a multidisciplinary
approach, with the International Union for
the Conservation of Nature setting global
standards. Biophilic design, meanwhile,
fosters a connection with nature using
natural materials, light and ventilation, and by
designing spaces for nature interaction. Thisapproach improves well-being, productivity
and learning, particularly in healthcare settings.
The Biophilic Cities Network and resources likethe World Green Building Council’s ‘Circular
Built Environment Playbook’ exemplify global
efforts to incorporate these principles, aiming
to reduce energy, water usage and waste.

Over 15 national and regional roadmaps havebeen facilitated with the GlobalABC, with 34
countries adopting strategies for decarbonising
the building sector. These roadmaps,
delineating short to long-term actions, aim to
unify stakeholders and establish achievablegoals, thus accelerating inclusive climate
action. For example, Costa Rica’s National
Decarbonization Plan includes a focus onefficient, low-emission buildings, while Chile isformulating a strategy for the sector’s carbon
footprint.
These roadmaps are anchored in NDCs,
guiding national efforts and underscoring thebuilding sector’s role in decarbonisation. To
further this cause, GlobalABC collaborated
with UNOPS and UN-Habitat, to develop
a new methodology and tools to support
countries and regions. This approach promotes
stakeholder collaboration and covers theentire building value chain, addressing carbon
emissions, climate adaptation and inclusion.
The methodology encompasses five action
areas: Strategic Priorities, Spatial and Urban
Development, New Buildings, Existing Buildings,
and Construction Supply Chain, ensuring aholistic climate action strategy that encourages
circularity. The roadmap development process
involves six steps: Mobilisation, Stakeholder
Engagement, Baseline Assessment,
Prioritisation of Challenges and Opportunities,
Actions and Timeline, and Implementation andMonitoring.
The overarching aim is to eliminate obstacles
to creating climate action roadmaps for thebuilding and construction sector, aiding theshift towards a decarbonized, sustainableindustry.

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |xv

Buildings BreakthroughLaunched on 6 December 2023, at COP28 in
Dubai, the Buildings Breakthrough initiative
is a collaborative effort by the French andMoroccan governments and UNEP. Thisinitiative targets the building sector, which
contributes significantly to global greenhousegas emissions, with the goal of achieving nearzero emissions and climate resilience by 2030.
As part of the broader Breakthrough Agenda,
the Buildings Breakthrough aims to makesustainable solutions and clean technologies
affordable and accessible in all regions by2030. The initiative is co-led by France’s
Ministry for Ecological Transition and Territorial
Cohesion and Morocco’s Ministry of National
Territory Planning, Land Planning, Housing, andCity Policy, with coordination by GlobalABC.
The initiative will be annually assessed by the
UNEP/GlobalABC secretariat, the International
Energy Agency, and the International
Renewable Energy Agency, in alignment with
the UNEP/GlobalABC annual Global Status
Report for Buildings and Construction.
As February 2024, 28 countries, including
Armenia, Austria, Canada, China and USA, havepledged their commitment to the Buildings
Breakthrough.
The initiative calls for accelerated development
and implementation of actions across thebuilding and construction sector, improved
coordination among stakeholders, andharmonization of definitions and certifications
for near zero emission buildings. It also
encourages governments to establish
procurement commitments for net-zerobuildings, join low-carbon material alliances,and commit to deploying clean, efficientheating and cooling technologies.
Furthermore, the Buildings Breakthrough seeks
increased funding for net-zero carbon building
construction and renovations, and the creationof a matchmaking platform to serve as a single
point of contact for emerging and developing
countries. It also promotes collaboration
to identify knowledge gaps, align research
priorities with policy goals and enhancecommunication of research and best practices.

xvi| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Recommendations for policy
and decision makers
The 2024 Global Status Report for Buildings
and Construction indicates a significant lag
in the sector’s progress toward the Paris
Agreement’s net-zero carbon targets by 2050.
To address this, the report provides targetedrecommendations:
For governments, the urgent need is to develop
and enforce climate action roadmaps forbuildings and construction, with 161 nations
still pending. Building energy codes must be
strengthened to enhance efficiency, and despite
economic hurdles, investment in building
decarbonisation should increase. Policies
should also aim to reduce embodied carbon
through sustainable practices and materials
and promote retrofitting to significantly reduceenergy consumption.
Private sector actors are encouraged tointegrate climate action roadmaps, channel
investments into energy-efficient and net-zerocarbon buildings and undertake retrofits tolower emissions. They should also be mindfulof their social impact, promoting justice andequity regarding access to and affordability of
housing.
Researchers and NGOs play a crucial rolein supporting the creation of climate action
roadmaps with evidence-based research.
They should collaborate in developing data
frameworks to support decarbonisation, raiseawareness with media and through strategic
communications and push for policy changes.
Cross-sectoral collaborations are vital toenhance the decarbonisation impact.
These steps are critical for realigning thebuildings and construction sector with global
climate goals, ensuring a sustainable andresilient future.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

01

Buildings and construction sector
in review: A reality check
The buildings and construction sector has
experienced a tumultuous year since the last
Global Buildings Status Report in 2022. Acrossthe world, as economies emerged from theeffects of the pandemic, construction activities
picked up as supply chain constraints eased
and demand for construction of new housing
resumed to its pre-pandemic levels, alongsidea return to workplaces for many employees
and expanding economic demands. Yet
as economies reopened, there was a rapid
increase in inflation and the release of pentup demand alongside retained savings fromthe pandemic (Reinhart and Graf von Luckner2022), which saw many central banks acrossthe world address inflation by raising interest
rates rapidly from near historic lows thatare creating challenging conditions for theconstruction sector (Guénette et al. 2022). This
increase in the cost of borrowing has slowed
construction activities globally, particularly
among major developing economies suchas China, Mexico, Indonesia and India.
Furthermore, ongoing conflicts and risingtensions continues to cause instability in global
energy markets. At the same time, international
efforts are underway for the buildings sector
to address climate change, with the launch of
the Buildings Breakthrough at COP28 and a
growing coordination among countries andnon-state actors to secure the delivery ofan efficient, inclusive, resilient and net-zerobuildings and construction sector (UNEP 2023).

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

The buildings sector’s sheer importance interms of the contributions to climate change
cannot be overstated, given it is estimatedto be responsible for around 21 per cent of
all global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions(Cabeza et al., 2022). In 2022, energy demandin buildings accounts for around 37 per cent of
total global energy demand and 37 per cent ofenergy and process-related CO2 emissions forbuildings operation and materials production.
Although energy intensity has dropped byaround 3.5 per cent since 2021, overall energy
demand and carbon emissions for energy
have increased by around 1 per cent to 132 EJ
and around 9.8 GtCO2 in 2022, exceeding the2018 peak (International Energy Agency [IEA],
2023). The policy landscape has also improved
with an increase in the number of Nationally
Determined Contributions (NDCs) including
more extensive details for climate actions in thebuildings sector, but this is not yet translating
into policy actions that are aligned to net-zero,such as Building Energy Codes (BECs), as
only seven NDCs have a code aligned to netzero operational emissions. The amount ofinvestment going into decarbonising buildings
increased in 2022 to over US$285 billion but
is expected to fall across 2023 as households
and businesses face higher borrowing costs
and builders face higher costs of construction
in labour and materials (IEA, 2023g. Overall,however, the Global Buildings Carbon Tracker(GBCT) shows that the rate of change is not
fast enough and that the global buildings andconstruction sector is not on track to realizing
sustainable, efficient, whole-life carbon netzero new buildings by 2030 and an operational
net-zero carbon building stock by 2050.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |17

Stronger policies around improving energy
performance of new and existing buildings, newpolicies and practices to address the whole-lifecarbon emissions from building materials andconstruction, and an increase in investment inenergy efficiency and construction of net-zerocarbon buildings are all needed. COP28 saw
the launch of the Buildings Breakthrough andthe ‘Buildings Breakthrough Agenda Report’,
which highlights that to align with the IEA NZE
scenario, operational buildings emissions must
decrease by approximately 50 per cent fromtheir 2022 levels by 2030 (IEA et al. 2023).
The Buildings Breakthrough has gathered 28
countries, and growing, that have pledged totake effort to deliver near-zero emission andresilient buildings by 2030.
Actions at the national level that support
the decarbonisation of the existing and newbuildings sector are critical to the delivery of
the Building Breakthrough objective and Paris
Agreement. There has been growth in efforts
that countries are taking to build coalitionsof support and networks that enable bestpractice for improved building performance;
this includes advancing design methods that
support low carbon building construction,prioritizing the renovation and reuse ofbuildings and undertaking efforts to improve
the resilience and climate adaptation of existingand new buildings. Such efforts are criticalgiven that the buildings sector is expected to
expand, especially in emerging and developing
economies, and the importance of taking early
action to prevent designs that are emissionintensive or maladaptive.

18| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

As we move through 2024, policy- anddecision-makers across government andindustry must urgently prioritize efforts thatdeliver real-word emission reductions in thebuildings and construction sector. There is aneed for actions that avoid and shift emissions
through improved building performance, adapt
buildings to increase their resilience to climatechange and expand building renewable energy
generation, while also addressing inequalities
in access and quality of housing and clean
energy. These actions are not straightforward
or without competing priorities, but withclear strategies—buildings and construction
roadmaps—developed through coalitions, nearterm change to transition the global buildings
stock to being efficient, resilient and zerocarbon is possible. As of 2023, the GlobalABC
has supported the development of 15 nationaland regional roadmaps and 34 countries
worldwide have adopted a clear strategy for
decarbonising the sector.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

02

Global buildings andconstruction status
2.1 Building construction trends
Since 2010, the total global area of constructed buildings has grown by over 31 per cent andreaching just over 250 billion square meters (IEA 2023a), with nearly 80 per cent of this being
residential (IEA et al. 2023). The increase in buildings floorspace is a driver of energy demandfor buildings and construction materials, though as energy intensity continues to improve it isoffsetting the increase in total energy demand despite the growth in construction and changes in
comfort standards in developing economies, such as in Africa (GlobalData 2023). Between 2021
and 2022, total global buildings floorspace grew by two per cent, while energy demand grew by one
per cent.
Buildings construction activities in 2022 and 2023 varied across the globe. Within G20 countries,
only the USA showed a continued upward growth in construction (see Figure 4), while many
countries across the African region have experienced sustained growth of population and of
construction activities for buildings (GlobalData 2023).

Figure 4 Change in construction activities in selected G20 Countries 2015-2023(Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] 2023)

Among high-income countries, many have seen a slide in their historic overall expenditure in theconstruction sector, for which buildings comprise the majority of construction in most economies.
The European area (20 countries) has seen a considerable slowdown in their expenditure in
construction, though some economies such as Germany and France remain relatively steady.
China’s construction sector was expected to grow by 2.7 per cent, a slowdown compared toprevious years, while India’s construction industry was expected to grow at a rate of five per cent(Konovalov 2023). Yet, a majority of the world lacks enforcement of regulations—such as requiringlabelling that address energy performance—and the result is a growing amount of floorspace builtwith no energy performance requirements, which leads to a growing energy demand. In 2022, thisamounted to around 2.4 billion square metres of floorspace added with no building energy codes —the equivalent of Spain’s entire building stock.

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |19

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

Over the last year, the global economy has
experienced a slowdown due to rising inflationand stricter financial conditions, whichhave also limited investment in buildings
construction overall. The global constructionindustry is grappling with high employment
and material costs along with a lack of skilled
labour, and estimates suggest only a modest
increase in global construction output growthfrom 1.7 per cent in 2022 to 1.8 per cent in 2023
(Global Data 2023), expanding from US$7,080
billion in 2022 and to around US$7,560 billion
in 2023 (The Business Research Company

12024). This growth is being challenged
by a combination of the increased cost of
borrowing—as central banks have increased
interest rates at the fastest pace in the last 20
years (World Bank 2023)1—and the geopoliticalconflict that have resulted in economic
uncertainty and constraints, escalatedcommodity prices and disrupted supply chains.
In emerging and developing economies, there
has been a marked slowdown in buildings
construction economic activities due to thepressures that borrowing costs (see Figure 5).

World Bank (2023). Global Economic Prospects, June 2023. Washington, DC: World Bank.
doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-1951-3. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 IGO

Figure 5 Emerging and development economies (EMDE) market construction activity and financial conditions(Source: World Bank 2023)

20| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

Despite these slowdowns, floor area isprojected to increase by a further 15 per centby 2030 (IEA 2023a), which will add nearly
40 billion square meters and is equivalent tofive times the current floor area in Indonesia.
It is estimated that more than half of these
additions are in regions with hot climates—
where space cooling demand is growing—that lack comprehensive implemented
building energy codes with enforcement
mechanisms (IEA et al. 2023). From an
operation carbon perspective, there is a riskthat the improvements in energy efficiency incolder climates may be offset by less efficientconstruction in warmer climates where
cooling demand is increasing, and a potential
further increase of carbon emissions if thoseeconomies electricity grids are not accelerating
the rate of renewable generation. From anembodied carbon perspective, regions of theworld with increasing construction activities
and limited access or use of low-carbon
materials risk locking in high embodied carbon
and operational emissions for a long duration.

Countries around the world continue to takeefforts to decarbonise their building stocks
through policies and pledges (see Chapter3), but they will need to adopt approaches
that emphasize whole-cycle net-zero carbon
emission buildings that are based on energy
efficiency (IEA 2022a). At the base are energyefficient buildings, which boast significant
energy savings through optimized construction
and systems for heating, cooling, lighting andother services. Low-carbon buildings take thisa step further by incorporating low-carbon
energy sources, although some may require
upgrades to existing equipment to reducecarbon emissions fully. Nearly zero-carbon
buildings achieve high energy efficiency andinclude some form of zero-emission energy,
but they fall short of completely neutralizing
their energy consumption. Net-zero-carbon
buildings rise above this by meeting theirenergy needs with zero-emission sources
over a set period, typically a year. Zero-carbon
buildings are similar but ensure that all energy
demands are met with zero-emission energy
throughout the period. Carbon-negativebuildings exceed even this standard by
producing more renewable energy than they
consume, contributing the surplus to thegrid for external use. Lastly, whole life cycle,
net-zero-carbon buildings represent the
pinnacle of sustainability, maintaining a zerocarbon status while also ensuring that theembodied emissions from their construction
materials are net-zero, achieved through either
decarbonisation or offsets.

Photo by Victor on Unsplash

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |21

2.1.1 Social Impact across the Built Environment
The built environment plays a central role in shaping social dynamics. Multiple aspects of people’s
lives, from health and well-being to human rights, are impacted at every stage of the building andconstruction lifecycle. Yet, the social implications of the buildings and construction sector rarely
receive due attention, and the issues being faced lack clarity, recognition and understanding. The
buildings and construction sector has a role to play in supporting improvements in social justiceand equity through efforts that build equity, which has historically been lacking in representation(see Box 1).

Box 1

Embedding gender equality in the construction sector

The construction sector remains male-dominated globally (Bridges et al. 2020; Zhang et al. 2021). Women
currently represent only 4.5 per cent of the construction industry in Malta (Navarro-Astor et al. 2017), 4.6 percent in Argentina (D’Alessandro et al. 2020; D’Alessandro et al. 2022), 5.47 per cent in Mexico (Government of
Mexico 2022), nine per cent in the broader architecture engineering, construction and operations sector in the
USA (Morello et al. 2018) and 14.1 per cent in Austria (Navarro-Astor et al. 2017).
Studies have shown that women face significant challenges in participating in the construction sector, including
gender pay gaps, gender stereotypes, lack of finance, discrimination, harassment and even violence (Fielden
et al. 2000; World Bank Group 2019; Bridges et al. 2020). Among the different sectors within the constructionindustry, women also tend to be better represented in professional activities than labour activities because of
the perceived notions that construction work as a masculine activity.
Women participating in the construction sector have actively challenged gender norms and roles (Ness 2012).
Various studies have argued for affirmative institutional action to increase gender equality in the constructionindustry. In the United Kingdom, Dainty et al. (2004) highlight the need for increasing the number of women rolemodels, enhancing construction industry’s image, increasing access and staff retention, changing the cultureof the industry and monitoring progress. In Mexico, the National Program for Equality between Women andMen (Proigualdad) 2020-2024 provides an overarching roadmap by establishing commitments and policies togenerate necessary conditions for the participation of women in all spheres of life. Proigualdad promotes (1)economic autonomy, (2) conditions for recognition, reduction and redistribution of domestic and care work,(3) improved access to well-being and health, (4) combating gender-based violence, (5) equal participation of
women in the decision-making in the political, social, community and private spheres, and (6) building safe andpeaceful environments for women and girls.
These recommendations provide initial steps needed to improve gender equality in the construction industry.
However, further context-specific and evidence-based efforts to encourage and promote women’s participation in
the construction industry are needed to increase gender equality.

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Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC)
published at COP28 a new report—‘Social
Impacts across the Built Environment’—that
provides a framework for how the building andconstruction sector can address social impact
across the entire building life cycle (WorldGBC
2023a). The report, which is supported by the
UN High-Level Climate Champions, is aimed
at stakeholders across the buildings andconstruction sector to address social impact
issues and considerations, and apply solutions
across their own practices, reporting anddelivery.

The report presents a social impact framework
for the building sector, using ‘scopes’ similar
to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. It introduces
scopes 0-3 to guide the industry in addressing
social justice and equity. Scope 0 covers
internal practices, Scope 1 focuses on building
users, Scope 2 on community impact andScope 3 on the supply chain (see Figure 6). The
goal is to integrate social and environmental
sustainability in the built environment andimprove decision-making and environmental,social and governance (ESG) reporting in the
sector.

Figure 6 Social Impact Framework

Scope 0

Scope 1

Scope 2

Scope 3

Entity & internal
practices

Building users& siteCommunity &surroundings

Supply & value
chainsExamples include:

Examples include:

Examples include:

Examples include:• Ethical leadership• Employee health, working
conditions and satisfaction• Housing attainability& habitability• Indoor environmental
quality• Climate change impacts
and adaptation measures• Accessibility• Just transition• Community protectionand empowerment• Environmental risks• Sustainable construction• Transparency andauditing• Labour rights• Stakeholder engagement• Corporate governance

All Scopes

Social impact issues and considerations across all scopes. Examples include:

Diversity and inclusion | Health, comfort and safety | Privacy and security | Climate impacts

Building and construction life cycle:
Operational
Design and construction
Manufacturing and end of life

(Source: WorldGBC)

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |23

2.2 Energy in the buildings and construction sector trends
In 2022, operational energy demand in buildings (for space heating and cooling, water heating,lighting, cooking and other uses) accounted for around 30 per cent of final energy demand 132
EJ, and when adding energy used to produce materials used in the construction of buildings it
amounted to 34 per cent (see Figure 7). The past decade has seen an average annual growthof just over one per cent in energy demand in buildings. Electricity’s share in buildings’ energy
use has risen from 30 per cent in 2010 to 35 per cent in 2022. Despite a shift from fossil fuels toelectricity and renewables, fossil fuel use in buildings has grown at an average annual rate of 0.5
per cent since 2010 (IEA 2023a).

Figure 7 Energy consumption in buildings by fuel, 2010-2022 (left) and share of buildings in total final energy
consumptions in 2022 (right)(Source: IEA 2023a)
Notes: Buildings construction industry refers to materials used in construction including concrete, steel and aluminium. Buildings
construction industry related energy use not shown in left panel.

In 2022, overall energy use in buildings increased by around one per cent, which was largely driven
by the added floorspace in emerging economies and was influenced by the continued increase inspace cooling demand, which rose by over three per cent compared to 2021, despite space heatingenergy consumption decreasing by four per cent, primarily due to a mild winter in several regions(IEA 2023a). While demand for spacing heating is declining due to energy efficiency improvements,
cooling demand continues to grow and managing this demand requires the use of sustainablecooling strategies that focus on protecting vulnerable populations at risk to heat, reducing demandand increasing adaptive capacity through passive cooling designs of buildings and cities, shifting
demand for cooling through design and use of renewables, and improving cooling performancethrough more efficient fabrics and equipment (SEforAll 2023).

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Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

On a positive note, although total energy
demand has increased, the energy intensity
per square meter has improved by around
3.5 per cent from 150 kWh/m2 in 2021 to 145
kWh/m2 in 2022 2 . This improvement in energy
intensity is being led by improved building
codes and fabric performance and technology
2

improvements (e.g. updated minimum energy
performance standards and heat pumps) incold climate countries (see Chapter 3). Yet a
critical challenge to improving global energy
efficiency is the lack of building energy codes inmore than 110 countries (see Section 3.2).

Values included for the baselines have been updated from previous versions of the Buildings-GSR due
to both historic input data updates for emissions and floorspace. The proportional changes between
previous years remains similar.

Stricter building codes and increased retrofit
rates have helped decrease space heating
intensity by seven per cent globally since 2015.
Efficiency gains have reduced space heating
service demand by four per cent in advanced
economies since 2010, but this has not offset
floor area growth in emerging and developing
economies (IEA 2023a). High-performancebuilding envelopes that use low-carbon passive
designs and efficient active technologies,
which are integrated into good building
design, are crucial for reducing thermal needs
and ensuring occupants’ comfort. Envelope
structure and material selection are vital due tobuildings’ long lifetimes and associated costs.
However, more efforts are needed, particularly
in warmer regions.
A further challenge is that the rate of retrofit inbuildings is well below those needed to achieve
a 50 per cent reduction in carbon emissions
by 2030. Currently, the average retrofit rate of
the building stock is around one per cent per
year, with these retrofits typically achieving lessthan 15 per cent reduction in energy intensity(IEA 2023a). To align with the goals of the Paris
Agreement, retrofit rates need to increase to
between 2.5 to five per cent and higher by
2030, and these retrofits need to be extensive(IEA 2023a), meaning that building fabrics needinsulation and glazing upgrades alongsideheating and cooling system improvements,
and the adoption of passive and naturebased building solutions that reduce service
demands.

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

In 2023, space heating was responsible for33 per cent of total final energy demand andhas decreased by around four per cent since2010, while global space cooling service
demand has risen by over 45 per cent overthe same period. The increase in the demandfor cooling was largely driven by changes in
expectations for the use of cooling, increased
floor area, equipment ownership growth andhigher temperatures (and aggressive climatechange impacts). This increase is also dueto the frequent neglect of cooling-oriented
envelope solutions during building design
and application of energy building codes.
This, along with rising temperatures andimprovements in living standards, is expected
to increase air-conditioner ownership from 37
per cent of the global population today to over
45 per cent in 2030 (IEA 2023a).
To align to the Paris Agreement goals, energy
consumption in buildings needs to drop byaround 25 per cent and fossil fuel use by morethan 40 per cent by 2030 (IEA 2023a). This
necessitates phasing out of fossil fuels anduse of traditional biomass, associated with
air pollution and health consequences, andachieving universal energy access, Sustainable
Development Goal 7.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |25

While global energy demand in buildings has grown by 13 per cent since 2010, regional energy
demand has shown diverging trends with considerable growth in demand across Africa (27 percent), Asia Pacific (27 per cent), Eurasia (26 per cent) and Middle East (32 per cent) and North
America having moderately low growth (four per cent), while Europe experienced a 15 per centdecline over this period and half of the reduction occurring over the last three years (see Figure 8).

Figure 8 Total final energy consumption in buildings
Final energy (EJ)
140
North America

120

Middle East

100

Europe80

Eurasia

60

Central and South America

40

Asia Pacific20

Africa

0

2010

2021

2022

(Source: IEA 2023a)

Countries are responding by increasing energy performance requirements for both new andexisting buildings. Notable progress has been made in China, Japan, the European Union, and theUSA, with policies and industry standards focusing on energy efficiency, zero-energy performanceand zero emissions (see Section 3.2).
A positive sign in the buildings sector is a spike in renewable energy use in buildings, which has
grown by more than 50 per cent and now comprises around six per cent of total energy use inbuildings (IEA 2023a). When accounting for renewables in the grid, it is estimated that renewables
contribute to 15 per cent of global building energy (REN21 2023) 3. Analysis by REN21 shows that
Brazil, Canada, France, Italy and Germany lead in renewables adoption in buildings, while othermajor economies such as India, Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea are lagging. Thereis a need to increase production of renewable energy systems in order to reduce costs for widespread adoption, particularly in emerging economies where such systems can be unaffordable tomany building owners (REN21 2023).

3

REN21, 2023. Renewables 2023 Global Status Report

Though there are improvements in energy intensity and continued growth in buildings renewables,
the sector needs more rapid changes to align with the Paris Agreement goals. This decade is
crucial for implementing measures to ensure all new buildings and 20 per cent of the existingbuilding stock are net-zero carbon ready by 2030. This includes the need for improvements inthe energy efficiency of materials used for constructing buildings, which represent four per centof global energy demand. The challenge lies in accelerating the use of efficient and renewablebuilding technologies, expanding the scope and stringency of minimum performance standards
and building energy codes across countries, while also improving awareness through the labellingof energy performance and carbon.

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Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

2.2.1 Improvements in building heating and cooling technologies
continue to expand
A key technology to addressing both energy
efficiency and carbon emissions in buildings
is the electrification of buildings with the useof heat pumps. Global heat pump sales grewby 11 per cent in 2022, marking the second
consecutive year of double-digit growth,though still only cover ten per cent of global
heating demand in buildings (IEA 2023a).
Heat pumps are a crucial technology for heat
decarbonisation, as the performance levelsof domestic heat pumps can be up to 400 per
cent efficient or more depending on conditions.
Heat pumps have seen a surge in sales in
2022, with Europe experiencing an increase of
40 per cent, the USA around ten per cent andJapan almost 19 per cent from 2021 levels.
In 2023, Germany experienced a doubling ofheat pumps purchased and sales in the USA
exceeded gas furnaces in 2023, though China’s
sales have largely flattened due to the housing
and economic slowdown (IEA 2023a).

and durability, developing products with lower
environmental impact, alongside worker reskilling.

The existing installation of heat pumps is
primarily concentrated in new buildings andexisting single-family homes. For these, a
recent collection of case studied showed
all-electric are cheaper and have lower
emissions than ones which use natural gas(Tan et al. 2023). However, to maintain solid
growth, multi-storey apartment buildings andcommercial spaces will need to be prioritised.
Alongside new construction, retrofitting
existing buildings with heat pumps whereappropriate will also need to accelerate,
alongside the adoption of district scaled low
carbon energy systems.

Since 2000, energy demand for space coolinghas grown at an average rate of four per centper year, doubling the rate for water heating andin 2022, the number of residential cooling units
in operation reached over 1.5 billion, a threefold
increase since 2000 (IEA 2023a). This surge inenergy consumption for space cooling strains
peak electricity demand, particularly during
hot days, increasing the likelihood of power
outages. To reduce global electricity demandfor cooling, there is a need for a rapid shift tobest-practice adaptive designs and the useof nature-based solutions with the adoptionof high-performance cooling products thatare affordable and accessible to markets withemerging cooling demands, such as India,
China and across Southeast Asia and SubSaharan Africa. Without this shift, electricity
demand for space cooling could rise by up to
40 per cent globally by 2030.

To meet national energy and climate pledges
worldwide, the IEA estimate that heat pumpinstallations would need to triple and satisfy
nearly 20 per cent of global heating needsin buildings by 2030 (IEA 2023a), whichtranslates to sales needing to increase by over
15 per cent per year this decade. This goal isalmost within reach if the growth rate of new
installations continues at the current pace,but will need additional policy support andtechnical innovation, especially by reducing
upfront costs, improving energy performance

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Energy consumption for space coolinghas more than tripled since 1990 (IEA
2023a), leading to increased pressure onelectricity grids, higher GHG emissions, andthe exacerbation of urban heat islands. A
significant portion of the global population
lacks access to affordable and sustainablecooling, resulting in heightened risk of heatstress, compromised thermal comfort, reduced
labour productivity, and negative healthimpacts (SEforAll 2023). A major driver of theincrease in demand for cooling is changing
thermal comfort expectations among building
users in countries where heat exposureand maladapted buildings are resulting inconditions where cooling is being sought (IEA
2023a).

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |27

The IEA have tracked over 90 countries that have established Minimum Energy PerformanceStandards (MEPS) for air conditioners (see Figure 9), and more than 95 countries have
implemented labelling policies, covering approximately 86 per cent of global space cooling energy
consumption in the residential sector (IEA 2023k).

Figure 9 Residential space cooling consumption covered by minimum energy performance standards by region
2000-2022
Proportion with MEPS

2000

2010

2022

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
GlobalNorth America

Asia PacificEurasia

Middle East

Latin America

EuropeAfrica(Source: IEA 2023k)

Photo by Elifin Realty on Unsplash

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2.3 Emissions in the buildings and construction sector trends
Global operational energy-related CO2
emissions from buildings grew by around one
per cent in 2022 compared to 2021 to justunder ten GtCO2, reaching a new global peak
(IEA 2023a). Emissions from buildings related
energy-demand represents around 27 per centof total global CO2 emissions in 2022 (or 21 percent of global GHG emissions) and a further
seven to nine per cent is estimated to be due tothe manufacturing of buildings materials (i.e.
concrete, steel, aluminium, glass and bricks),
bringing the global estimate of energy andprocess-related emissions for the buildings
and construction sector to around 37 per cent.
If including other materials used in buildings,
such as plastics, foams, fabrics and other softand hard materials, the proportion of emissions
would be even greater.

In 2022, direct CO2 emissions from buildings
operations experienced a slight decrease,reaching three Gt, which contrasts with theaverage annual growth of nearly one per centfrom 2015 to 2021 (IEA 2023a). Meanwhile,
indirect emissions from buildings operations
increased by approximately 1.4 per centin 2022, totalling nearly 6.8 Gt and can be
attributed to a growing reliance on electricity
for building operations (IEA 2023a). Regional
differences in emissions trends were observedin 2022.

In addition to direct and indirect emissions from building operations, 2.5 Gt CO2 in 2022 wereassociated with building construction, including the manufacturing and processing of cement,
steel and aluminium. Estimates for the production of bricks and glass would see a further 1.2GtCO2
emitted (see Box 2). Altogether, emissions from building operations and construction account forover one-third of global energy-related emissions at around 13.6GtCO2. (see Figure 10).
Figure 10 CO2 emissions in buildings 2010-2022 (left) and share of buildings in global energy and process emissions
in 2022 (right)(Source: IEA 2023a)
Notes: Buildings construction industry refers to concrete, steel and aluminium for buildings and infrastructure construction respectively.
The boundaries of the emissions (energy and process) account for construction materials include from raw materials preparation andprocessing and the different steps to produce the materials. For example, for cement this includes the entire manufacturing processes,
from obtaining raw materials and preparing the fuel through to grinding and milling. The numbers in the pie chart are rounded values andtherefore do not necessarily sum to the total value for a given sector.

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Notes: Buildings construction industry refers
to concrete, steel and aluminium for buildings
and infrastructure construction respectively.
The boundaries of the emissions (energy andprocess) account for construction materials
include from raw materials preparation andprocessing and the different steps to produce
the materials. For example, for cement thisincludes the entire manufacturing processes,
from obtaining raw materials and preparing
the fuel through to grinding and milling. The
numbers in the pie chart are rounded values
and therefore do not necessarily sum to thetotal value for a given sector.
The embodied carbon emissions of materials
used in buildings construction are an importantarea for action due to their being around 50
per cent of the overall carbon emissions in
new building (World Business Council for
Sustainable Development and ARUP 2023).
In addition, addressing materials throughimproved efficiency and use is vital to reducing

Box 2

construction waste going to landfill, increasing
the reusability of materials and enhancing thecircularity of buildings construction (WGBC2023). These actions can be supported by
avoiding new building, reusing existing, build
smartly and build efficiently. To achieve netzero goals, collaborative efforts are needed
across the entire built environment value chain,focusing on reducing consumption demandand simultaneously lowering carbon intensity
in the supply side.
To align with the Paris Agreement goals,
buildings and construction sector emissions(direct and indirect) must be reduced by anaverage of nine per cent per year until 2030,
resulting in a more than 50 per cent reduction
by the end of the decade. Alongside building
operations emissions, embodied carbon
emissions need to reduce through improved
manufacturing process and use of renewableenergy used in their production.

Emissions from bricks and glass

Estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with subsidiary building materials, namely the
production of bricks and glass, are challenging for two key reasons. First, due to the global prevalence of
informal manufacturing practices, tracking the overall output of bricks by country and year is uncertain,
especially in rapidly urbanizing economies. Second, calculations of per-brick or per-tonne of product GHG
emissions are themselves uncertain. This is partly due to the absence of a standardized approach to defining
the system boundaries of the production techniques, but also similar uncertainties regarding informal
production. A 2023 paper examining the energy consumption of brick manufacturing in India points to thesechallenges (Tibrewal et al. 2023).
The 2022 Global Status Report for Buildings pointed to estimates that global emissions associated withbrick and block manufacturing stood at approximately 1.1Gt CO2e annually, with glass adding an additional
approximately 0.1Gt. Tracking changes in these emissions year to year is largely impossible, due theuncertainties outlined above. There has been no evidence published in the past year that would suggest asubstantial shift in the portion of new buildings that are built using brick and glass respectively.
By assuming growth in line with global floor space increase between 2021 and 2022 of less than five per centand an absence of substantial improvements in overall emissions intensity, bricks and glass production would
still account for approximately 1.2Gt CO2e. Until major improvements in brick manufacturing carbon intensity
are scaled, it is unlikely that these emissions will be reduced in the near term.

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03

Sustainable buildings andconstruction policies
National and sub-national actions are critical to support the sustainable transition of the buildings
sector, and there have been a range of policy developments that are outlined (see Section 3.1). In
addition, the Global Status Report tracks both national buildings energy code developments andbuildings commitments under the Paris Agreement’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)(see Section 3.3). It also tracks the status of building energy codes and those that are aligned
towards net or nearly zero carbon emissions (see Section 3.2).
Recognising the policy gap that currently exists to limiting global warming to 1.5°C, WorldGBC
alongside 75 Green Building Councils, launched the ‘Global Policy Principles for a Sustainable Built
Environment’ (WorldGBC 2023b). These principles are structured around seven key focus areas- carbon, resilience, circularity, water, biodiversity, health, equity and access - outlining detailed
policy mechanisms to deliver on global goals including the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable
Development Goals.

3.1 Leading national policies
Globally, the buildings policy landscape is diverse, with many countries lacking substantive
or coordinated policies for addressing sustainability, energy performance or CO2 emissions
in the building sector. However, a small but growing number of countries are developing andcommitting to buildings energy and CO2 emissions regulations that are compatible with limiting
global temperature increases to 1.5°C. A growing number of governments are furthering theircommitments to addressing building energy performance and emission reductions.
Since 2022, there have been several notable advances in nationally relevant policy, including in theEuropean Union where the legislative process to strengthen the Energy Performance of Buildings
Directive (EPBD) is entering its final stages (European Commission 2023a). The revised EPBD,
agreed upon in late 2023, mandates zero emission standards for new public buildings by 2028
and all new buildings by 2030. European Union countries must cut residential energy use by 2030
or 2035, targeting inefficient buildings first, and enforce MEPS on non-residential buildings from
2030. Funding for new fossil fuel boilers is banned from 2025, with a complete phase out by 2040.
The policy also requires calculating and reporting the Global Warming Potential for new buildings
by 2030, alongside implementing Whole Life Carbon targets.
In India, the buildings sector currently account for 40 per cent of national CO2 emissions, but 70
per cent of expected Indian buildings have yet to be constructed (GBPN 2022). In December 2022,
India’s legislature passed the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022, which sets out theparameters of a carbon-trading scheme and allows for the specification by the central governmentof an energy conservation and sustainable building code for large buildings (Tariq 2023).

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In July 2022, Japan revised and strengthened its Building Energy Conservation Act, aiming forcompliance with building energy efficiency standards across the building stock by 2025 (Energy
Conservation Center Japan 2022). The government of Ireland announced an extension of its
renewable heat incentive programme (IEA 2023d), while France and Bosnia Herzegovina havecommitted funds to supporting energy efficiency measures for public buildings (IEA 2023e).
In September of 2023, the United Kingdom announced a £1b in grants for home insulation (UKGovernment 2023a), but also weakened plans to phase out fossil fuel heating for off-grid homes
and scrapped minimum energy efficiency standards for rental homes (Evans et al. 2023).
In Chile, the National Energy Efficiency Plan 2022–2026 aims to reduce thermal energy demand inbuildings by 30 per cent by 2026 and 50 per cent by 2050 over 2019 levels, through the promotionof energy focused retrofit, district energy programmes and capacity building (Energy Ministry of
Chile 2022). This builds on the 2021 Energy Efficiency Law, which states that new buildings in theresidential, commercial and public sectors must have a certified energy label (Energy Ministry of
Chile 2021).
Across Latin America and the Caribbean as a whole, opportunities for improving the region’s codes
to improve the resilience and sustainability of buildings were highlighted in a 2023 report (Alvear etal. 2023). The study compares approaches of regulatory bodies across 26 countries, highlighting
mitigation, adaptation and resilience in the region’s building stock.

3.2 Building codes
As of 2023, there are now 81 and 77 national buildings adopted codes for the residential andnon-residential buildings respectively, of which 80 per cent are mandatory. Twenty of these codes
having been updated and adopted since 2021, and 17 adopted codes developed or revised in 2023
alone.
However, despite a growing number of adopted codes and their updates, more than 30 per
cent, have not been updated since 2015 and as a result are not likely to be mandating a highperformance standard. Further, it is estimated that around 80 per cent of projected floor area
growth by 2030 is expected to occur in developing and emerging economies (IEA 2023a), and mostof these countries lack the necessary building energy codes and enforcement to limit the growthof energy demand. This offers a significant opportunity for countries to take efforts to improve andfurther enforce their adopted codes and align the standards towards achieving a whole-life netzero CO2 emission performance for new and retrofit buildings.

Photo by Alexander Abero on Unsplash

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Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

Although the number of adopted codes globally are growing, there are still regions around theworld that will benefit from attention to developing and adopting more modern codes, such as
Africa and parts of South America and Southeast Asia where codes are yet to be developed,
remain voluntary or are limited in scope and stringency (see Figure 11).

Figure 11 Adopted global building energy codes by type and status(Source: IEA 2023a)
Notes: Countries with dark ‘red’ outline have adopted updated building energy codes since 2021

The past 18 months has seen several countries update their building codes towards alignment with
the Paris Agreement and, for those in the European Union, upgrading codes to meet the EPBD.
The French building code, RE2020, sets out rules for energy, environmental and healthperformance of new building projects and includes a bioclimate indicator that requires a 30 per
cent reduction to the previous code, mandates the use of low-carbon energy sources, limiting
overheating risks, and aims for a 50 per cent reduction in embodied carbon emissions for buildings
by 2030 and their full decarbonisation by 2050. The RE2020 calculates a building’s environmental
impact based on the emissions created during its whole life cycle, including construction as wellas manufacturing and transportation of building materials (Minister for Ecological Transition and
Territorial Cohesion of France 2024).
Updated Danish building regulations came into force in 2023 and now require buildings over 1000
m2 to limit carbon emissions to 12 kg CO2e per m2 per year. This limit will be reduced incrementally
to 7.9 kg CO2e per m2 per year in 2029. Additionally, all new buildings must document theirenvironmental impacts through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) over a 50-year time span (Danish
Ministry of Interior and Housing 2021).

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The recently updated California 2022 Building Energy Efficiency Standards has focused on
improving energy efficiency and reducing GHG emissions from newly constructed and renovatedbuildings (California Energy Commission 2022). The California code encourages the use of
efficient electric heat pumps for space heating and water heating, introduces the requirements forelectric-ready new homes, expands use of solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage systems
and promotes the use of climate and grid-flexible technologies such as demand response readyappliances. This development occurs against the backdrop of US$1 billion funding for supporting
the adoption of building energy codes under the Inflation Reduction Act (Office of State andCommunity Energy Programs2024).
The updated 2021 British Building Regulations changes to Part L (Fuel and Power) has similarly
focused on energy efficiency standards, improved ventilation and new overheating requirements(UK Government 2023b). The code, which contributes to the United Kingdom’s net-zero goals,
requires CO2 emissions from new build homes to be 30 per cent lower than the current standards,
and emissions from other new buildings, including offices and shops, to be reduced by 27 per cent.
A Future Homes and Buildings Standard is due in 2025 and will set the path to achieving net-zerobuildings, although the United Kingdom has argued the proposed standards is lower than current
levels (UKGBC 2023).
Singapore’s , launched in 2021, includes MEPS for new and existing buildings. From 2022, all newbuildings are required to be 50 per cent more energy-efficient compared to 2005 levels, which ismore stringent in comparison to the previous 30 per cent requirement (Building and Construction
Authority 2021). For existing buildings undergoing major retrofitting, the requirement for 40 per
cent improvement in energy efficiency compared to 2005 levels applies starting from 2022, also
indicating an increase in stringency of requirements from previously 25 per cent. The update also
supports a Super Low Energy (SLE) Programme, which aims to promote best-in-class energy
efficiency, the use of onsite and offsite renewable energy, and intelligent energy management
strategies in buildings.
China’s most recent building energy performance code was published in 2021 and sets mandatory
energy efficiency standards for new construction, renovation and expansion of buildings to reduceenergy consumption and promote sustainable development. It also encourages the integration ofrenewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power (The Standardization Administration of
the People’s Republic of China 2021).
Sri Lanka’s Energy Efficiency Building Code 2020 was introduced by the Sustainable Energy
Authority (SEA) and includes energy efficiency improvements in the design, construction andoperation of buildings (Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority 2020). In addition to setting out
minimum energy performance requirements for building components (e.g. walls, roofs, windows,
lighting systems and controls) it set outs guidelines for heating, ventilation and air conditioning(HVAC) systems to ensure energy-efficient operation and maintenance alongside energy
management systems. The code also sets out recommendations for the use of renewable energy
technologies, such as solar water heating systems and photovoltaic systems.

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3.2.1 Modernisation building energy codes
For countries and states, developing building codes that enable the transition towards a resilient,
efficient and zero-carbon building stock requires attention to high standards that promoteadvanced designs, which encompasses envelopes and technologies that ensure buildings operatewith the least amount of energy required to maintain comfortable and productive spaces.
Modern building codes must encompass a comprehensive array of considerations to effectively
achieve elevated levels of energy efficiency, bolster sustainability, address climate change and facilitate
optimal thermal comfort. Codes need to take an integrated approach to outline stringent guidelines forbuilding envelope insulation, efficient HVAC systems, energy-efficient lighting and the use of renewableenergy sources. Additionally, codes must promote passive design strategies that capitalize on naturalventilation where the climate allows, as well as on day lighting and shading techniques to curtail energy
demand while ensuring occupant comfort. These codes should also encourage the incorporation ofsmart building technologies that enable real-time energy monitoring, data-driven optimization andadaptive controls and enable building-to-grid interactivity.
Countries that have already adopted building energy codes should look to include energy efficiency
requirements that seek higher levels of performance of the building envelope, glazing and more
efficient building services system performance requirements, in line with enhanced MEPS.
For countries without building codes, separate standards for new buildings can be enacted (orembedded in forthcoming codes) to set fabric performance requirements for all or most building
types. It is also crucial that building energy codes set out a pathway towards net-zero carbon andtherefore have a timeline to become more stringent over time.

Modernised building codes might include, but are not limited to:Stringent energy efficiency
requirements for building envelopesand electricity consuming systems,with some level of the overall building
energy performance supplemented
by prescriptive compliance options
that favour passive demand reduction
measures. Where possible, this should
be done for both new and existingbuildings to ensure efficient design,
maintenance, operation and renovationof buildings.
Zero emission-aligned whole-lifecarbon targets, addressing both
operational and embodied CO2
emissions, aligned to national andinternational decarbonisation targets
for the sector.

Requirements for buildings to beequipped with smart meters, user
appropriate controls (including
demand response controls, suchas demand response thermostats,demand response lighting controls
and demand response HVAC
controls), sensors and communication
technologies.
Requirements for buildings to beequipped with smart devices, whereappropriate, and make use of intelligent
analytics to improve operation.

Grid-ready requirements for buildings(pre-wiring, space requirements for
future installations of PV systems,
electric vehicle (EV) charging andenergy storage).
Smart EV charging requirements,
where appropriate.
Requirements for thorough testing andcommissioning prior to occupancy.
Requirements for post-occupancy
energy use monitoring based on thesmart meter data.

Prescriptive requirements for on-site
renewable energy systems.

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Energy codes provide an immediate strategy
to improve building performance throughenergy efficiency measures. Building energy
codes should be part of a comprehensive andenforced policy package supporting highperformance buildings.
The importance of building codes, particularly
in developing countries, is critical to managing
future energy demand and avoiding carbon
emissions. Developing countries often exhibit
rapid urbanisation and construction growththat can lead to substantial increases in energy
consumption and related carbon emissions
unless efficiency is enacted as buildings
are constructed, alongside expansion andimprovements of a low-carbon grid. Building
codes provide an essential framework to guidethe expansion of the buildings stock towards asustainable trajectory. By mandating energyefficient construction practices, developing
countries can pre-emptively mitigate the risein energy demand and carbon emissions thatwould otherwise accompany urbanisation.
Codes can also be used to increase theadoption of renewable energy solutions andinnovative technologies, fostering self-relianceand resilience in energy systems. Implementing
and enforcing building energy codes inemerging economies can help mitigate theimpacts of climate change, improve energy
security and reduce the carbon footprint of thebuilding sector (see Box 3).
Codes also play an important role in addressing
resilience to climate change and for buildings
to withstand the impact of extreme climate
conditions, including heat waves, on buildings
and their occupants (Building Energy Codes
Working Group 2023). Building energy
efficiency emerges as a crucial strategy forenhancing climate resilience and ensuring
thermal comfort and safety during extreme
conditions in buildings. It is estimated thatbetween 2000 and 2019, over 7,000 weatherrelated natural hazard events affected over fourbillion people, causing significant economic
losses and loss-of-life (Centre for Researchon the Epidemiology of Disasters, United
Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction2020). Resilient buildings are identified as key
assets in dealing with extreme weather events,
reducing stress on the grid and enhancing
survivability during power outages.
Photo: Garrett Rowland/Gensler

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Box 3

Climate action and the path to net-zero: New York City and Tokyo

New York, USA and Tokyo, Japan are two of the world’s most famous megacities, with around 8.5 million and 14
million inhabitants respectively. Both are pursuing measures to decarbonise their building stock in line with thegoals of the Paris Agreement. Each of these cities has diverse urban morphologies and architectural vernaculars
and they are pursuing different policy approaches to building decarbonisation.
In New York City, Local Law 97 (LL97) was passed in April 2019 as part of the Climate Mobilization Act, and aims
to reduce buildings emissions, which account for two-thirds of the city’s total (Urban Green Council 2023a). The
law targets buildings over 25,000 square feet (approximately 2322 m2), whether they are individual structures orpart of a larger complex exceeding 50,000 square feet (approximately 4645 m2) (Urban Green Council 2023b).
The law is set to roll out with new energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emission limits, starting in 2024, witheven stricter standards slated for 2030. The goal is a 40 per cent reduction in emissions from the city’s largest
buildings by 2030, with a net-zero reduction target by 2050 (Urban Green Council 2023b).
Non-compliance with LL97 comes at a substantial cost – a fine of US$268 per ton of CO2 equivalent over thelimit, based on 2024 energy usage and emissions. This approach underscores the city’s plan to use a regulatory
stick to achieve its climate objectives. A study commissioned by the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY)
in January 2023 revealed a significant challenge ahead – over 3,700 properties could be out of compliance,
potentially facing penalties exceeding US$200 million annually, despite substantial investments aimed atmeeting the new standards (REBNY press 2023).
Meanwhile, Tokyo is aiming at building decarbonisation through the Zero Emissions Tokyo Strategy. This
strategy targets a 30 per cent reduction in GHG emissions on year 2000 levels by 2030, 38 per cent energy use
reduction over the same period, and an increase of renewable power to 30 per cent. By 2050 all buildings mustbe zero emissions (Tokyo Metropolitan Government 2020).
These efforts take place in the context of the Tokyo Cap-and-Trade Program (TCTP), which launched in 2010
(Tokyo Metropolitan Government 2019). This program allows buildings which surpass their targets to sell theiroffset carbon to other properties, incentivising further reductions. Progress to date shows the greatest gains
have come from high efficiency heating and LEDs replacing inefficient lighting (Tokyo Metropolitan Government2022). In 2020, the city’s Green Buildings Program of building performance disclosure was expanded to coverbuildings larger than 2000 m2.
As both cities emerge fully from the COVID pandemic, empty office space remains. Tokyo’s central districts havevacancy rates of over 6 per cent (Matsuno 2023) and as much as 100 million square feet of real estate spacein New York City is empty (Goldberg and Sakaguchi 2023). This may present a unique opportunity to reform
lease agreements and implement retrofits at scale to safeguard the low carbon future both cities are striving for(McKinsey & Company 2022).

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3.3 Nationally Determined Contributions updates
NDCs outline government climate mitigation plans under the Paris Agreement. While countries arerequested to update and strengthen their NDC commitments every five years, engagement withthe process varies considerably.
As of December 2023, 194 countries plus the European Union have submitted NDCs to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) repository, with 48 submitting
updates since the 2022 Buildings Global Status Report, including the 27 members of the European
Union which submit the same NDC (UNFCCC 2024a) (see Figure 12). Notably, the Holy See
submitted an NDC for the first time, but it did not make mention of buildings other than listingheating related GHG emissions. Overall, there has been very limited increase in the detail ofbuildings actions (and clear reference of measuring the aimed achievements), with only 11 of the48 submissions increasing the level of coverage of buildings relative to previous NDC submissions.
Table 1 summarises these changes, incorporating the highest level of commitment that a country
has included relating to buildings from its NDC submissions. The current level of commitments isshown in .

Figure 12 Mentions of buildings in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)(Source: GlobalABC)
Note: This map is without prejudice to the status of or the sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers andboundaries, and to the name of any territory, city or area.

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Table 1
Mentions ofbuildings in NDCs
at the time of
publication of the
Buildings — Global
Status Report

GLOBAL STATUS REPORT YEAR

2021

2022

2023

Adaptation only

17

20

17

Energy efficiency

94

103

106

Extensive detail

10

15

19

Limited reference to buildings

14

16

15

No known NDC

5

3

3

No mention

56

39

37

Total mentioning buildings

135

158

161

TOTAL

196

196

197

Despite the limited progress on commitments to buildings action in the NDC in the past year,
several countries have submitted plans with extensive detail. The Bahamas aims to drive buildings
emissions mitigation through the adoption of a revised building code, the adoption of which could
prevent 22kt CO2e emissions by 2030. Bahamas’ NDC also lays out plans for energy audits ofgovernment buildings, hotels and industrial facilities, as well as replacing lighting with low-energy
LED lighting and rolling out a public information campaign aimed at reducing energy consumption.
The updated NDC of Türkiye points to the adoption of a 2022 by-law on energy performance inbuildings, which requires buildings over 2000 m2 to have an EPC of at least class B and at least
10 per cent of their energy to be supplied by renewable energy. The Turkish NDC also commits to
the renovation of existing buildings by 2030 and to use district heating in areas of high population
density. The broader decarbonisation roadmap for Türkiye’s building sector was developed Zero
Carbon Building Accelerator (ZCBA) project in 2023 (Bayraktar et al. 2023).
The United Arab Emirates NDC reported buildings emissions of 62 Mt CO2e in 2019, with a target to
reduce these by 56 per cent by 2030. This will be achieved through the National Energy and Water
Demand Side Management Programme 2050, which requires periodically updated building codes
to improve the efficiency of new buildings, improved retrofit rates and increased uptake of roof-top
solar PV and water heating (Government of the United Arab Emirates 2023). Within the Emirates
themselves, Dubai aims to retrofit 30,000 buildings by 2030.

Photo by Danist Soh on Unsplash

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This year, the buildings Global Status Report also reveals how detail in the NDCs with respect
to buildings has changed since the signing of the Paris Agreement. The first major tranche ofsubmissions occurred in 2016, with 100 submissions occurring in that calendar year (see Table
2). Since then, the number of countries issuing NDCs with some consideration of buildings has
increased steadily, but the number of those with extensive coverage is still lower (19) than thosewith no mention of buildings (37). Crucially, no G20 economy includes extensive reference tobuildings in their NDC. Despite this, countries such as New Zealand, Norway, Australia and Iceland
have published more detailed roadmaps in their respective Biennial Update Reports (UNFCCC
2024b) and Long-Term Low-Carbon Development Strategy documents (UNFCCC 2024c). As of
December 2023, there have been a total of 168 unique submissions, covering 194 parties to theParis Agreement (see Figure 13).
As countries move towards updating and submitting/resubmitting their NDCs for the subsequent
reporting period in 2025, along with the development of the Low-Carbon Development Strategy
documents, greater attention to the buildings sector and decarbonisation and adaptation details
need to be added to bolster efforts to address buildings sector emissions and climate resilience.

Table 2
Changes over timeof mentions ofbuildings in the
NDCs

Figure 13
Number of unique
NDCs mentioning
buildings by level ofdetailCALENDARYEARExtensive
detailSomementionNomentionUnique country
submissions to date

2016

2

54

45

101

2017

2

74

62

138

2018

3

81

69

153

2019

3

82

71

156

2020

8

92

63

163

2021

14

112

41

167

2022

17

112

38

167

2023

19

112

37

168

Countries

extensive detailsome mention

no mention

180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20

(Source: GlobalABC)

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0

2016

2017

2018

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

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3.4 Building certification systems
The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) in its Global Policy Principles for a Sustainable Built
Environment report (WorldGBC 2023), recognized the role of voluntary green building standards
and certifications as an information policy lever to support the elimination of both operationaland embodied carbon emissions across buildings’ lifecycle and the prioritisation of buildings
renovation. With growing interest, the WorldGBC network has evolved to represent 80 countries
across global regions.
More than 60 international and local building certification systems exist worldwide. Unfortunately,
the limited availability and transparency of the data openly published by building certification
entities remains a barrier. Only 13 certifications systems are included in the analysis of the
GBCT. These include BEAM Plus, BREEAM, CASBEE, DGNB, EDGE, GREEN STAR, GRIHA, LEED,
Miljobyggnad, MINERGIE, Passive House, Saaf, and WELL. These certification schemes vary fromlocal certification schemes operating in one country to schemes operating in 180 countries. In
recent years, certifications such as LEED, DGNB, Passive House and EDGE have increased theircoverage, including new countries where their certification scheme is being implemented (seeBox 4).

Box 4

Green Building Certificates in specific regions

Green building certification in the UAE
Since COP28 took place in the United Arab Emirates in 2023, a brief analysis of the certifications systems in theregion was conducted. Due to limited availability of data, only four of the certification systems existing in the region
are discussed.
According to the information presented by the Emirates Green Buildings Council (EmiratesGBC publication
launch webinar: Advancing deep retrofit in the UAE 2020), as of 2020, the Dubai Green Building Regulations andSpecifications (replaced by Al Sa’fat – Dubai Green Building System in 2020) had accumulated 19,046 certified
buildings and 15,532 villas; PEARL Building rating system had certified 461 buildings and 9972 villas; and Barjeel
had accumulated 59 certified buildings and 289 villas. Saaf, which is part of the analysis for the GBCT tracker, has
accumulated 4641 projects until 2022.
Green building certification in Latin America
Since Latin America is a region with a broad variety of cultures, climates, energy prices and local policies andconstruction practices, there is also a difference in the level of development of green building standards andcertification schemes between countries. However, since the Paris Agreement in COP21, signatory countries havedeveloped local certification schemes to promote green building, energy efficiency and decarbonisation, and its
benefits to the environment, health and well-being of people and communities.
Such examples are GBC Casa, GBC Condomínio and GBC Life and Zero Energy in Brazil; CVS and CES in Chile,
Casa Colombia, Casa Guatemala, CREAS in Argentina, MAS in Uruguay, and ECOCASA in Mexico (Alvear et al.
2023). A relevant example of certification may be the Torre Rise project in Mexico, which is expected to be the tallest
skyscraper in the region once completed. This project is applying different certification schemes such as LEED,
WELL, bEQ and the local norm for minimum criteria and environmental requirements for sustainable buildings in
Mexico, NMX-164. The project can be seen as an example to promote best practices based on foreign and national
standards, opening the way to sustainable innovations in the building sector.

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To incentivize the demand for building
certificates, certification schemes should beleveraged as a tool to access funding andinvestment schemes. Moreover, certification
schemes are more frequently including lifecycle
assessments and zero carbon emission
principles within their evaluations (IEA et al.
2022). These new characteristics should belinked to the obligation of housing associations,building portfolio managers and mortgage
credit institutions to report lifecycle emissions,and to the requirement of new buildings to be
zero carbon emissions. Certification schemes
considering embodied emissions, combinedwith the inclusion of embodied emissions into
public procurement decisions, can also help
create demand for material efficient designs(Huynh et al. 2023; IEA 2023f).
Certification schemes should also recognize
the local context and tailor their assessments
to encourage and facilitate their rollout
according to the local circumstances,
especially in developing countries.
Furthermore, certification schemes cangradually consider options to promote not only
sustainable constructions but also resilient
buildings, for which a lack of resilience isrecognized as an ever-increasing risk to thebuilding stock (Felicioni et al. 2023).

Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

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Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

04

Investment and financing forsustainable buildings
The transition to net-zero buildings is a complex process that requires strategic use of both policy
and financial instruments. These instruments must be designed to promote investment in energyefficient and low-carbon building technologies by overcoming financial barriers and supporting
long-term cost savings from energy efficiency improvements.
A recent report looking at the interdependencies between policy and finance showed that policy
instruments (e.g. capacity development, mandates and incentives) have strong interdependencies
with financial instruments (Micale et al. 2023). Capacity development and fiscal tools bolster
mandates and incentives, improving local workforce skills, including sustainability knowledge of
public engineers and architects. Mandates, like data disclosure by building owners and standard
setting, are crucial for transition. Financial instruments often include grants, fiscal instruments,
equity instruments, risk mitigation instruments, business models and contracts, debt instruments,
asset finance models, and structured finance strategies. These instruments play varied and often
complementary roles in the transition to net-zero buildings.

Photo by K8 on Unsplash

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4.1 Energy efficiency investment in buildings
Global investment in the energy efficiency of buildings increased by around 14 per cent from 2021
to US$285 billion in 2022 (IEA 2023g) (see Figure 14). Investments in 2023 are estimated to fall to
270 billion due to the impact of rising borrowing costs and economic instability, which are slowing
construction activity. Investment in energy efficiency and construction of sustainable buildings
represents less than five per cent of total global investment in the buildings sector. Global increases
in the cost of living will put pressure on borrowing costs, but energy efficiency presents a means ofmoderating energy cost volatility as well as reducing emissions.
The growth in global investment was driven by direct public investment and Europe’s response
to energy insecurity amidst the cautious reopening of the global construction sector. However,projections for 2023 indicate a potential slowdown in spending due to increased borrowing costs,
economic uncertainty and the ongoing conflicts.

Figure 14 Investment in energy efficiency in buildings and construction(Source: IEA 2023a)

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Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

The 2022 increase in efficiency investment waslargely attributed to spending in major markets
such as the USA, Germany and Italy. There wasalso an increase related to the expansion of
global floorspace with more newly constructedbuildings reaching higher than minimumbuilding code standards, such as thosemeeting green or sustainable certifications (seeSection 3.4).
In the USA, over US$33.7 billion was invested
through Department of Energy efficiency
programmes and utility demand-side
management. This spending is estimatedto have increased by an additional US$970
million in 2023 through the newly createdState and Community Energy Office underthe Inflation Reduction Act. In Germany,
efficiency spending moderated to around
US$51 billion in 2022, accompanied bychanges in support programmes. In Italy, theSuperbonus programme led to a near doublingof the investment in energy efficiency from
US$23 billion in 2021 to around US$57 billion
in 2022. However, recent changes to the
Italian Superbonus programme have createduncertainty about spending beyond 2023.
China’s construction sector experienced a
10 per cent reduction in investment in 2022,
alongside a slowing delivery of green buildings.
Similarly, France and the United Kingdom
saw a decrease in efficiency spending due toa slowing construction sector and changes
in government programmes. Conversely,some developing markets, such as India,
saw an increase in construction activities
and investment in building energy efficiency.
Japan’s focus on achieving zero energy
housing (ZEH) has resulted in an increase in the
proportion of green new buildings.
Overall, most countries experienced a modest
increase in 2022, primarily due to the recoveryof construction activities from pandemicinduced lows. Europe saw a modest increase
in investment of around three per cent, while

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Central and South America experienced anincrease of around five per cent in construction
sector spending and related investment inenergy efficiency.
International financial institutions continue tosupport investment in the global building stock
through concessional finance. For instance,
the European Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment committed over US$73.5 million
to Lithuania for energy efficiency renovations
in residential buildings and US$43 million
to Albania for improving school building
efficiency.
Investments are increasingly being directed
towards technologies that enable net-zerocarbon ready buildings, such as heat pumps(see Section 2.2.1). In 2022, around 3 million
heat pumps were installed in buildings acrossEurope, marking an increase of almost 40 per
cent compared to the previous year and isestimated to be worth US$14 billion (Global
Market Insights 2023).
However, the winding down of pandemicrelated stimulus and the projected reductions ingovernment and private sector spending due toincreased borrowing costs suggest that 2023
may see a reduction in efficiency spending.
Investment in global energy efficiency is
projected to drop by up to 10 per cent due toconstruction market uncertainty in Asia, SouthAmerica and Europe, and changes in several
large European programmes. This potential
shift in investment trends in the buildings
sector energy efficiency is concerning,
given that further energy price rises will
strain households and businesses. The
lack of knowledge around energy efficiency
investment is a barrier to adopting strategies—
such as shared-risks and preferential terms
for energy efficient technologies—that
reduce perceived risks associated with theseinvestments.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |45

Photo by Iva Rajović on Unsplash

4.2 Financing of energy efficiency and zero carbon buildings: acase study of the European Union
Addressing the risks and challenges posedby climate change in the buildings sector
requires the mobilisation of substantial capital,
with the construction and real estate sector
facing a substantial investment gap needed todecarbonise. In the European Union alone, toachieve the proposed 55 per cent climate target
by 2030, around US$300 billion of additional
investment in building renovation is needed
every year (European Commission 2020). Partof this investment is aimed to be met by theEuropean Union’s US$733 billion Recovery and
Resilience Facility (RRF), which has dedicated37 per cent of its funds to climate-related
expenditure between 2021-27. However, as
mobilising capital through public investment
is not sufficient, the financial services sector
must also play its role.
To overcome existing sectoral and systemic
barriers, the European Union has taken several
legislative initiatives that are increasingly
impacting the construction and real estate
sector. To support sustainable investments, theEuropean Union has developed a classification
system to enable the identification of activities
that are environmentally sustainable and tohelp investors navigate the transition to a lowcarbon economy.

46| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

The EU taxonomy , entered into force on 1
July 2020, creates a common language forinvestors, issuers of green bonds, companies
and policymakers through technical screening
criteria in relation to six environmental
objectives (European Commission 2023b):
1. Climate change mitigation
2. Climate change adaptation
3. Sustainable use and protection of water andmarine resources
4. Transition to a circular economy
5. Pollution prevention and control
6. Protection and restoration of biodiversity
and ecosystems
To be classified as an environmentally
sustainable or green activity according to the
EU taxonomy, an economic activity shouldmake a substantial contribution to at least oneof the above environmental objectives while
not doing significant harm to the other five. In
addition, “minimum social safeguards”, suchas the UN Guiding Principles on Business andHuman Rights, need to be met. To date, threetaxonomies have been fully developed andadopted for buildings sector-related activities:
climate change mitigation, climate change
adaptation and transition to a circular economy.
The finance legislative context in the European
Union is further explored in a recent WorldGBC
report ’Ahead of the wave: financing thetransition to a decarbonised built environment’(Emmrich et al. 2023).

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

The climate delegated act of the taxonomy
has outlined that the primary energy demand(PED) of new constructions has to be at least
10 per cent lower than the nearly zero energy
building (NZEB) threshold, whereas for building
renovation to be considered a sustainableeconomic activity, it needs to achieve 30 per
cent energy saving and comply with minimum
energy performance requirements.
While the use of the EU taxonomy ispredominantly voluntary at this stage, theintroduction of reporting requirements as of2022, mandating the disclosure of eligibility
and alignment with the taxonomy, has rendered
the regulation more relevant and influential
in the sector. One of these initiatives is theSustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation(SFDR) (European Commission 2022), which
was developed with the aim to improvetransparency in the market about the way
how financial actors, i.e. asset managers,
institutional investors, insurance companies
and pension funds, incorporate sustainability
risks. A distinctive part of the SFDR concerns
the so-called classification requirement offinancial products as a:

The more ambitious the product, the stricter
the disclosure requirement. To meet SFDR
sustainable investment definitions, reportingof the full lifecycle environmental impacts isrequired, including extraction of raw materials
to the construction phase, use and finallydemolition and disposal.
Current focus is on usability of the EU
taxonomy, as in practice many real estate
actors seem to be struggling to collect
the required data to establish and provetaxonomy alignment. Collecting sufficient
data to measure against the EU taxonomy isconsidered valuable in anticipation of its future
expansion, offering insights into the proportionof portfolios that already have a reduced
environmental impact and the steps that canbe taken to improve the more carbon-intensive
assets.
Tightening the climate change mitigationthresholds of the current taxonomy will be
imminent to bring it in line with the forthcoming
and more ambitious recast of EU’s Energy
Performance of Buildings Directive. This will
also be an opportunity to emphasize theimportance of renovations of existing buildings
over new constructions4 , as well as introduce
whole life carbon benchmarks and limit values,
and other mechanisms such as carbon finedemolition and carbon credits for reuse ofbuildings. In any case, these developments are
already driving investor action and unparalleledlevels of transparency when it comes toreporting.

•

Financial product without a sustainability
ambition•

Financial product that promotes
environmental or social characteristics,
so‑called light green products•

Financial product that has both
environmental and social investment as its
objective, so-called dark green products

4

The energy efficiency renovation of buildings is currently classified as a ‘transitional activity, and as suchcannot be included in a ‘dark green’ fund under the SFDR. The present environmental taxonomy may havethe unintended consequence to suggest that investing in renovation is less sustainable than demolishinga replacing an existing building with a high energy performance new construction.

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The implementation of green taxonomies
is growing around the world. By the end of2022, there were over twenty taxonomies inplace or being developed (The Sustainability
Institute by ERM 2022). For instance, in
Latin America, Colombia launched its Green
taxonomy in 2022, and Mexico is (see Section
10.3). Countries in other regions that haverecently launched their green taxonomies
include Canada, South Africa, Indonesia andSingapore. While some of these differ from theEU taxonomy to prioritise their local context,
countries such as Canada and South Africa are
predominantly built on the EU taxonomy (The
Sustainability Institute by ERM 2022).

Another prominent enabler being implemented
in multiple regions is the carbon exchange andtrade markets. More than 60 countries, cities,
states and provinces have implemented or areplanning to implement carbon trading systems(IEA 2020). Alignments like these should
be further pursued. Trading systems canstimulate technological innovations, support
climate risk quantification and multilateral cooperation, create synergies with energy andenvironmental policies, among other benefits(IEA 2020).

It is important to increase international
cooperation to pursue alignments acrosstaxonomies. The large diversity of them
may hinder stakeholders operating acrossborders since their activities may be classified
differently across regions (Thür 2022). The
European Union in its proposal to regulate its
green bonds (TANG 2022) indicates that toencourage the development of high-quality
sustainable taxonomies in third-country
jurisdictions, European Union bond proceeds
allocated in a third country should be able touse a sustainable taxonomy from that third
country provided that that taxonomy has been
deemed ‘equivalent’ to the EU taxonomy.

48| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

05

Global Buildings Climate Tracker
First published in 2020, the Global Buildings Climate Tracker (GBCT) monitors the progress
towards the decarbonisation of buildings worldwide. The GBCT is a seven-part composite
index that provides a snapshot of the decarbonisation efforts of buildings from 2015 (when the
Paris Agreement was established) until today (this year’s edition includes data until 2022). For
the first time, the progress is being measured against a reference scenario, which envisions
decarbonisation the building sector by the year 2050.
As shown in Figure 15, the GBCT integrates the CO2 emissions associated with building
operations5. Additionally, it includes two indicators to monitor the impact of decarbonisation
efforts and four indicators to monitor the actions taken towards the decarbonisation of buildings.
The impact of the decarbonisation efforts is represented by the indicators monitoring the building
stock energy intensity and the renewable share in final energy demand. Meanwhile the indicators
monitoring the energy efficiency investments, green building certification, NDCs consideringbuildings, and building energy codes measure the actions taken towards decarbonisation. The
CO2 emissions indicator is used as a multiplier while the other six indicators are aggregated using
a weighted sum, with weights established in the first edition of the GBCT: impact indicators 37 percent and action indicators 63 per cent.
5

It is important to consider the role of embodied carbon emissions in the building sector. Unfortunately,
these are not being currently included in the GBCT due to the lack of a data set covering this portion of theemissions in the sector worldwide and through the timespan of the tracker.

Cumulative energy
efficiency investment inbuildings (USD$bn)

Figure 15 GBCT’s indicators weights

37%

Building sector
energy intensity(kWh/m²)(Source: Building Performance Institute of Europe[BPIE])

CO

2
EMISSIONSIMPACT

Renewable
share in final
energy demandin buildings(%)

Green building
certification(% cumulated
growth)NDC
consideringbuildings extensively(% aggregated)

63%
ACTION

Building codes
ZE-B aligned(% aggregated)

In this edition of the GBCT, the goals for all the indicators were adjusted to a reference scenario toincrease the consistency among them and with the final decarbonisation goal of the composite
index. The IEA’s Net Zero Emissions (NZE) scenario (IEA 2023h) was used as the reference
scenario. For each indicator a 2030 milestone and the 2050 final goal are introduced. The
milestone in 2030 reflects the near-term actions required to pave the way towards the long-termgoal by 2050. Other updates include the change in the methodology for the energy efficiency
investments, which shifted from monitoring annual investments to cumulated investments.
Additionally, the methodology for the NDCs and building energy codes was adjusted to assess therelevant aspects included in them more thoroughly. A detailed description of the updates of thegoals and methodologies can be found in.

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Figure 16 (left) presents the reference path ofdecarbonisation for the building stock, startingin 2015 until 2050. The path is the result ofcombining the reference paths for the sevenindicators. For each indicator, it is considered
to follow a linear path from the starting pointin 2015 to the milestone in 2030, and then to
the goal in 2050. The reference paths of theindicators are aggregated using a weighted
sum according to the weights previously
described and then multiplied by the CO2
emissions indicator.
Figure 16 (right) zooms in to present the period
2015-2022. The observations show thatthe decarbonisation of the building sector is
far off track. By 2022, the gap between theobserved status and the reference path is 39.8
decarbonisation points6. After a noticeable
increase observed in 2020—most likely related
to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions—andits rebound in 2021, the decarbonisation index
increased by 0.8 points in 2022, reaching -0.2
points. The observations of the first sevenyears of the implementation of the Paris
agreement show that the decarbonisationof the building stock worldwide is lacking
significant progress. By 2022, thedecarbonisation index is at similar levels of thereference starting point in 2015. From a global
perspective, progress to mitigate the climatechange impact of buildings and construction isstagnating.

Figure 16 GBCT decarbonisation index. Left: reference path until 2050. Right: zoom in for the 2015-2022 period.
45

39.6

40

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
-10

Zero carbon
building stock goal

34.5

35

29.3

30

23.8

25

18.2

20
15

0

[points]

6.3

10
5

39.8

12.3
0

-0.3 -0.9

-4.3

-1.4

2.8

-1.1 -0.2

-5
2015

2050

Decarbonisation Index-102015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Path to goal

Decarbonisation Index

Path to goal

(Sources: BPIE

650

| UNEP |Please consider that the results from the previous editions of the GBCT differ from the results presented
this year due to the changes implemented in the methodology and goals of some of the indicators, formore details please refer.

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

This lack of progress can be obser ved in most of the indicators comprising the GBCT. Table 3
summarises the observations for the selected indicators, including the starting point in 2015 andthe observations in 2022.

Table 3

GBCT’s indicators observations summary, 2015-2022
Starting value
in 2015

Observed value
in 2022

Observed change
from 2015 to 2022

Necessary change
from 2015 to 2022

9.3 [GtCO2/year]

9.8 [GtCO2/year]+5.4 [%]-24.6 [%]

Building sector energy intensity

153.1 [kWh/m²]

145.3 [kWh/m²]-5.1 [%]-17.3 [%]

Renewable share in final energy
demand in buildings

5 [%]5.9 [%]+0.9 percentage
points

+6.1percentage
pointsCumulative energy efficiency
investment in buildings

161 [US$bn]

1,642 [US$bn]+1,481 [US$bn]+2,531 [US$bn]

Green building certification(cumulative growth)

1.0 point

9.1 points+8.1 points+15.3 points

NDC considering buildings
extensively (aggregated)

0.7 [%]

5.7 [%]+5.0 percentage
points+34.7 percentage
pointsBuilding codes ZEB-aligned(aggregated)

0 [%]3.3 [%]+3.3 percentage
points+35.0 percentage
points

INDICATOREMISSIONS
Buildings sector energy related
emissions
IMPACTACTION

By 2022, the GBCT shows that the CO2
emissions associated with the operation ofbuildings have not reduced since 2015. By
2022, the CO2 emissions from buildings are 5.4
per cent higher than those observed in 2015.
Moreover, the indicators measuring the impactof the decarbonisation efforts show that, since2015, the energy intensity in buildings has
decreased by only 5.1 per cent falling shortof the necessary 17.3 per cent reduction.
Additionally, the renewable energy share inbuildings’ final energy demand has increased
by only 0.9 percentage points from 2015 to2022, instead of the required 6.1 percentage
points.

7

Conversely, in terms of the indicators
measuring actions taken towards
decarbonisation, the GBCT shows that the
cumulated 2015-2022 energy efficiency
investments were US$1,050 billion less than isneeded to be on track. The cumulative growthof green building certifications increased
8.1 points, around seven points below thenecessary value. With respect to policy
progress, by 2022 only 17 countries have NDCs
have extensive details for the building sector(see Section 3.3) and only three countries haveestablished building energy codes that arealigned with ZEB principles (see Section 3.2),
making these two indicators very low values
5.7 per cent and 3.3 per cent, respectively7.

Consider that the number of countries is not translated directly into percentages for these two indicators.
It is considered that advanced economies may reach net-zero emissions in advance of others, i.e. it
was considered that by 2030 all the G20 members and 50% of the remaining countries should include a
detailed strategy for the building sector within their NDCs and have building energy codes including ZEB
principles. For more details on the methodology for these two indicators please refer to Annex: Global
Buildings Climate Tracker method.

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The low progress or even worsening observed in the GBCT’s indicators explain the large gap
shown in Figure 16 between the current status of the decarbonisation of the building stock and thereference path. The representation of a path to get on track by the end of the decade towards thelong-term goal in 2050 in presented in Figure 17 (the reference path is shown only until 2030 tofacilitate the reading of the figure).

Figure 17 GBCT observations and path to get on track by 2030

80

72.8

70

65.9

60

58.2

50
40
30
20
10
0
-10

0

6.3

12.3

18.2

23.8

29.3

34.5

49.9

39.6

41.0
31.4
21.3

-0.2

10.8

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030
Decarbonisation Index

Path to goal

Get on track path

(Source: BPIE)

It is important to notice, that starting in 2015,
around six decarbonisation points wererequired every year to follow the reference path.
However, due to the slow progress achieved
until 2022, around ten decarbonisation points
are now necessary every year to correct thecurrent situation and get on track by 2030.

52| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

To get on track towards the final goal in
2050, it is necessary not only to accelerateand strength the implementation of effective
measures to boost the progress of each of theareas covered by the indicators comprised in
the GBCT, but also to strengthen the reporting,monitoring and verification of the measuresand indicators themselves. The following
section provides more insights regarding thedevelopment of the indicators, the gaps in theirprogress until 2022, and the opportunities to
get on track.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

06

Buildings climate policy gap review
The lack of progress in the decarbonisation of the global building stock, evidenced by the GBCT, isthe result of gaps in progress across the monitored indicators. These gaps, and the opportunities
that exist to close them, can get the sector back on a trajectory to aligning to the net-zero carbon
goal in 2050 by the end of this decade. The following policy gap analysis outlines the actions
needed to address both the emissions indicators and the impact and action indicators.
The gap analysis covers the period 2015-2022 and compares against a reference path that could
be followed to achieve the decarbonisation of the global building stock. The reference path isdefined according to the milestones and goals of each indicator, which were established based on
the IEA’s Net-zero Emissions scenario (IEA 2023h). For more details on the milestones, goals andmethods for the GBCT’s indicators please see Annex: Global Buildings Climate Tracker Method.
In addition to the observations and reference paths, a ‘get on track’ path shows the accelerated
actions trajectory to reach the decarbonisation reference path, which assumes that necessary
efforts to bridge the gap for each indicator are deployed in the upcoming years and that theindicators get on track by 2030. From 2030 onwards, the progress of each indicator follows thereference path until 2050. Hence, the reference path is only presented until 2030 to facilitate thevisualisation in the figures.
Note that although the GBCT is normalised and the final index is dimensionless (i.e. no units) 8 , theindicators in this section are presented in terms of their absolute values to facilitate the analysis
and interpretation of the results.

8

For more details please see Annex: Global Buildings Climate Tracker Method

Photo by UrbanToronto

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6.1 Emissions
6.1.1 Buildings sector energy related emissions
This indicator monitors the CO2 emissions (direct and indirect) resulting from the operation ofbuildings. The reference path towards the long-term goal of zero GtCO2/year by 2050 has amilestone of 4.4 GtCO2/year in 2030.
In 2022, the CO2 emissions from buildings’ operation reached 9.8 GtCO2/year (see Section
2.3 Emissions in the buildings and construction sector trends), which is 40 per cent higher than
the reference value. If the trend from previous years continues, the CO2 emissions from buildings’
operation may keep growing, exceeding twice the required value for 2030. To get on track, the CO2
emissions should reduce in average by around ten per cent every year until 2030 (Figure 18).

Figure 18 Observations of the CO2 emission of the global building stock’s operation and path to get on track

12
10

7.0

8

[GtCO2]

10.1

9.8

9.3

6

4.4

4
2
0

2015

2018
Emissions

2021
Path to goal

2024
Current trend

2027

2030

Get on track path

(Source: BPIE)

The actions required to accelerate the rate ofdecarbonisation include setting out stronger
policies that set targets for reducing building
emissions; upgrading and adopting building
energy codes that align to net-zero carbon;
shifting towards mandatory performancecertificates and labelling as well as whole
life cycle reporting frameworks; adopting‘upper third’ best available technology MEPS;
setting maximum operational and embodied
carbon emissions; and adopting zero carbon
public procurement requirements (IEA 2023f;
WorldGBC 2023b).

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Even though the tracker does not include
embodied emissions due to the lack of data, it
is important to highlight that it is necessary toaddress not only operational but also embodied
emissions. An example of efforts to in thisregard is France’s RE2020 regulation, whichcaps buildings’ embodied carbon emissions(IEA 2023f). Mechanisms to collect and report
data regarding embodied carbon emissions
should be deployed, especially in regions where
new construction is expected to increase
considerably in the coming years. Greenlabelling and certification related to embodied
emissions, as well as factoring embodied
emissions into public procurement decisions,can also help create demand for material
efficient designs (IEA 2023f).

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

6.2 Impact
6.2.1 Building sector energy intensity
To meet the reference path, global building energy intensity needs to reduce by around 37 per centcompared to 2015, reaching a 96 kWh/m2 milestone by 2030. In 2022, building energy intensity
reduced by around 3 per cent compared to 2021, reaching 145.3 kWh/m2. Yet, this indicator is 15
per cent higher than the necessary value to be on track. If this trend continues, the energy intensity
would be almost 50 per cent higher than the needed value in 2030. To get on track, the energy
intensity should reduce by around 5 per cent every year to 2030, almost seven times faster thatduring the 2015-2022 period (Figure 19).

Figure 19 Observations of the building sector energy intensity and path to get on track

160 153.1

145.3

150

[kWh/m²]

140

140.9

126.5

130
120
110

96.2

100
90
80
70

2015

2018

Energy intensity

2021

Path to goal

2024

Current trend

2027

2030

Get on track path

(Source: BPIE)

Reducing the energy consumption in buildings
through higher energy performance standards
for new buildings and efficient retrofits
of existing buildings is key to achieve thereduction of CO2 emissions. In developing
regions like Latin America, moving fromstrategies beyond technologies towards
approaches at the systems level, such as
combining buildings materials and passive
technologies with efficient end uses, canenable achieving higher savings (IEA 2023a).
Moreover, it is imperative to highlight the roleof sufficiency measures to reduce energy
consumption. The Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change (IPCC) in its 2023 reporthighlights the role of sufficiency measures tolimit the demand for energy and materials overthe lifecycle of buildings and appliances (IPCC2023).

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Recent examples of the types of policy actions
needed include China’s new General Codefor Building Energy Efficiency and Renewable
Energy Utilization, implemented in 2022,
which requires all new, expanded or renovatedbuildings to be designed with energy efficiency
principles (IEA 2023i). In Europe, the recast of
the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive(EPBD) is expected to increase the support for
the transition towards a more efficient building
stock in the region. In the Republic of Korea, the‘Energy Cashback’ pilot programme, launchedin 2022, incentivises households to reduceenergy consumption through behaviour change
in improving energy efficiency. Meanwhile,
Australia’s updated 2022 National Construction
Code has strengthened energy efficiency
requirements for new homes and apartments.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |55

6.2.2 Renewable share in final energy demand in buildings
The share of renewable energy in the final energy consumption of buildings needs to reach 18 percent by 2030 to align to the reference pathway. In 2022, renewable energy use in buildings was only
six per cent. If this trend continues this use would only reach seven per cent by 2030. To get on
track, the share of renewable energy in the final energy demand of buildings should increase by 1.5
per cent every year until 2030 (Figure 20).

Figure 20 Observations of the renewable share in final energy demand in buildings and path to get on track

20%

18.1%

18%

[%] Share

16%
14%

11.1%

12%
10%
8%

5.0%

6%

6.8%

5.9%

4%
2%
0%

2015

2018

Renewable share

2021

2024

Path to goal

Current trend

2027

2030

Get on track path

(Source: BPIE)

Although the amount of renewable energy
used in buildings increased by 30 per cent from2015 to 2022 (IEA 2023i), this increase has not
displaced conventional fuels. But so long as theelectricity grid also continues to decarbonise,building emissions would fall at the needed
rate.
Policy actions that see building codes adopt
minimum renewable energy requirements
for end-uses such as hot water heating,alongside onsite renewable energy generationand storage, will support the increase ofrenewables used in buildings. Moreover,adopting requirements for renewableenergy procurement can also accelerate
the decarbonisation of the energy supply inbuildings.

56| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

An example of a supporting framework
for renewable energy procurement is the
Zero Code Renewable Energy Procurement
Framework (Architecture 2023, 2024).
Decarbonising heat through the use of heatpumps alongside a decarbonising electricity
grid will further reduce emissions and can be
mandated through building codes and bans on
fossil fuel heating systems. For example, theCalifornia building code sets out performancetargets that effectively require the use ofheat pumps in new building construction
by requiring heating from ‘clean energy’ or
having to meet much more stringent fabricperformance requirements (NRDC 2021).

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

6.3 Action
6.3.1 Cumulative energy efficiency investment in buildings
Global investment in energy efficiency and high-performance buildings are at an all time high, with
US$285 billion in 2021 and US$270 billion in 2022, making the total accumulated investment ofaround US$1,642 billion. Yet, to meet the reference pathway, total accumulated spending would
need to be 40 per cent (of the reference value) higher at US$2,693 billion (Figure 21). Without
considerable efforts to increase the investment levels in energy efficiency and shifting construction
practices to sustainable buildings, the trend will be 58 per cent lower than needed in 2030.
This scenario is worrying as global investments in energy efficiency in the building sector were
projected to drop by up to five per cent in 2023 due to both construction market uncertainty in Asia,
South America and Europe, and changes to several large European programmes (IEA 2023g).
To get on track, the annual investment level should increase gradually around 12 per cent every
year until 2030. Investments not made during this period will lead to a more inefficient building
stock, increasing the magnitude of the efforts that would be required in the future.

Figure 21 Observations of the cumulative investment in energy efficiency in buildings and path to get on track

5,586

6100

[USD$Billion]

5100
4100

3,232

2,693

3100
2100
1100
100

1,642

161
2015

2018

2021

2024

2027

2030

Cumulative investment in energy efficiency in buildings
Path to goal
Current trend
Get on track path
(Source: BPIE)

The Breakthrough agenda report indicatesthat in some cases the main challenge is not
attracting more finance but rather using theexisting funds more effectively. The lack ofawareness of funding options and limitedaccess to affordable finance instruments is
one of the main barriers in developing regions(Beavor et al. 2023). Developing frameworks,
such as Mission Efficiency (2024), to matchand support partners and recipient countries
through the whole process, from project
ideation to completion, can increase capacity
for investment in efficient buildings. Models
that have worked well in sectors such as power

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

and road transport include having a dedicatedmatchmaking platform to bring partners andstakeholders together (IEA et al. 2022).
Investing in energy efficiency means investingin youth employment, especially in developing
regions. The increase in demand for workers
can enable greater inclusion of historicallyunderrepresented groups (IEA 2023a).
A previous survey by the Inter-American
Development Bank’s (Ravillard et al. 2021)
identified a higher participation of women in
emerging sectors in Latin America, including
energy efficiency.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |57

6.3.2 Green building certification
This indicator, which tracks the cumulated growth of green building certification, uses available
data from 13 certification systems around the world (see Section 3.4). The total annual numberof certifications issued by each of these systems is aggregated using weights assigned to eachsystem based on the total number of certifications cumulated and the number of countries where
the certification system is being implemented.
Even though the number of certifications itself has grown continuously since 2015, by 2022, thecumulated growth of building certifications reached only 9.1 points, instead of the necessary
16.3 points (see Figure 22). If the trend from previous years continues, by 2030 the accumulated
growth of building certifications would be only 17.7, half of the necessary value. To get on track, theaccumulated growth of building certifications should increase by 3.1 points every year until 2030.

Figure 22 Observations of the growth in green building certifications and path to get on track

cumulated growth rate

40

33.9

35
30
25
15

9.1

10
5
0

(Source: BPIE)

1.0
2015

2018

2021

2024

| UNEP |

2027

2030

Cumulated growth in green building certification
Path to goal
Current trend
Get on track pathGreen certification of buildings offers a way ofunderstanding the leading edge of sustainablebuilding construction and broader recognitionof the importance of sustainability acrossthe sector. Unfortunately, transparency of thedata openly published by building certification
entities remains a barrier. Although many of
the certification systems are voluntary, having
comprehensive and transparent information
about the number of certified buildings aroundthe world helps build a clearer picture of the

58

17.7

16.3

20

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

status of the building stock in terms of theirsustainability. Better reporting practices should
be deployed. An example of a sustainabilityrelated voluntary scheme with clear reporting
strategies is the Science Based Targets
initiative, which shows companies how muchand how quickly businesses need to reduce
their GHG emissions to prevent the worst
impacts of climate change, leading them ona clear path towards decarbonisation (WRI,2023).

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

To further support the advancement of sustainability standards, harmonisation across systems
should be encouraged to facilitate international cooperation and deployment of funding in regionswith low levels of green building investment. The lack of coordination among certification schemes,or the minimum levels within the standards, presents a barrier to international investment (IEA et
al. 2022). Certification systems should also acknowledge the circumstances and context of eachregion where they are being implemented. For instance the EDGE certification system now offers azero-carbon certification (recognising the challenges for developing countries), which requires zero
operational emissions and partially considers embodied carbon (IEA et al. 2022).

6.3.3 NDC considering buildings extensively
NDCs must include clear actions to tackle the decarbonisation of the building sector, throughextensive strategies for energy efficiency, mitigation and adaptation. This indicator expects that
advanced economies should reach net-zero emissions more rapidly given they are responsible foraround 80 per cent of emissions. This indicator therefore needs that all G20 members and 50 per
cent of the remaining countries would include a detailed strategy for the building sector within their
NDCs by 2030. For 2050, the goal is defined as all countries having an NDC including a detailed
strategy for the building sector.
As of 2022, the aggregated NDCs considering buildings in detail is very low and only 5.7 per
cent, around 30 per cent less than the necessary value (Figure 23). Only 17 countries haveincluded extensive actions for the building sector in their NDCs as of 2022. If this trend continues,
aggregated value of extensive NCDs would be only 10.5 per cent, more than 60 per cent below
what is necessary. To get on track, all G20 members should include a clear and detailed strategy
for the building sector in their NDCs before 2030, and the number of other countries with extensive
NDCs should almost quadruple.

Figure 23 Observations of NDCs considering buildings extensively and path to get on track

75.0%

80%

[%] Aggregated

70%
60%
50%

35.4%

40%
30%
20%
10% 0.7%0%2015(Source: BPIE)

5.7%
2018
2021
2024
2027
Aggregated NDCs considering buildings extensively
Path to goal
Current trend
Get on track path

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

10.5%

2030

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |59

6.3.4 Building codes ZEB-aligned
Building codes must rapidly be updated to be aligned to zero emission principles. Both countries
with existing codes to be upgraded and countries that lack building energy codes to set out apathway to adopting efficient zero emission standards. While doing this update, the breakthroughagenda (IEA et al. 2022) highlights the urgency of not only limiting operational carbon emissions
but also the embodied emissions.
The reference pathway for building codes is that by 2030 all the G20 members and 50 per cent of
the remaining countries should have implemented building energy codes that are aligned with zero
emission principles. For 2050, the goal is defined as all countries having building energy codes thatare net-zero buildings, both operationally and in embodied carbon.
As of 2022, the proportion of building energy codes aligned with ZEB principles only reached 3.3
per cent, more than 30 per cent lower what is needed (Figure 24). Only three of the existing codes
worldwide in 2022 were aligned with ZEB principles (see Section 3.2). If the trend continues, thisindicator would be only 4.5 per cent, more than 70 per cent below the necessary value in 2030.

Figure 24 Observations of aggregated ZEB-aligned energy codes and path to get on track

75.0%

80%

[%] Aggregated

70%
60%
50%

35.0%

40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

2015

2018

2021

2024

Aggregated ZEB-aligned energy codes
Current trend

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction2030

Get on track pathTo get on track, all G20 members and at least
50 per cent of the remaining countries should
set out and implement building energy codesthat are aligned with ZEB standards before
2030. Examples of such efforts include Japanreviewing its buildings regulations in 2022 torequire zero energy performance for all newbuildings by 2030, and for all existing buildings
by 2050. Türkiye also tightened regulations in
2023 to require all new buildings to be nearlyzero energy, with thicker insulation and at least
five per cent of demand met by renewableenergy sources (IEA 2023i).

| UNEP |2027

Path to goal

(Source: BPIE)

60

4.5%

3.3%

0.0%

Developing regions, where the building stock is
expected to grow considerably in the coming
years, require international support to establish
clear roadmaps and local building energy
codes. For instance, in Nigeria where there isa housing shortage of 17 million units (Realty2021), one of the main barriers is the lack ofbuilding regulations, standard technologies andinformation standards and labelling (Beavor etal. 2023). The inclusion of ZEB principles in thebuilding practices in these regions plays a keyrole in guaranteeing that the emerging building
stock is aligned with the decarbonisation goalsof the sector worldwide.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

07

Deep dive – Adaptation and resilient
construction methods
As global temperatures increase and extreme weather phenomena such as storms, floods andwildfires become more frequent, adaptation and resilience in the built environment will become
increasingly important. These climate impacts can manifest in risks that affect both building
operations and the resilience of building materials under extreme and intense climate conditions.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has defined adaptation as actions taken to“adjust to the actual or expected climate and its effects” and resilience as the “capacity of social,economic and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance”(Mach et al. 2014).
Depending on their specific location and design, existing buildings will face increasing riskof overheating as global temperatures continue to rise throughout the 21st century. This isparticularly true for higher density buildings (e.g. high-rise), buildings with low ventilation rates
and buildings with high levels of glazing. Increasing prevalence of high wind and storms in many
regions will also necessitate increased rates of repair and the need to improve building materials
and methods to withstand such events (Carlin et al. 2023). This is challenging in low-income andemerging economies, where lack of funds and informal building techniques makes high resiliencebuildings difficult to build.
Sea-level rise, more intense hurricanes and flooding also present increasing challenges for the built
environment in the years ahead. For example, following hurricane Otis in Acapulco, Mexico, therecovery and reconstruction efforts cost US$3.4 billion (Garrison and O’Boyle 2023). The coastal
setting of many of the world’s major cities is inherent in their vulnerability to climate change(Faraud and Fathi 2023). Buildings situated in flood-prone zones are vulnerable to water incursion,
which can compromise foundations, structural integrity and electrical systems (EPA 2023).
The intersection of building practices and the risk of maladaptation to climate change is a criticalconsideration for establishing sustainable and resilient urban environments. Inadequate building
practices can inadvertently contribute to maladaptation, particularly in the form of overheating,and lead to increased energy consumption. Buildings with poor insulation, suboptimal orientationand insufficient ventilation may succumb to overheating during heat waves, amplifying health risks
and escalating energy demands for cooling, and consequently increasing the greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions. Inappropriately designed structures may also rely heavily on energy-intensive
air conditioning systems, exacerbating carbon emissions from regions without decarbonised
electricity grids. Glass-dominated facades without solar control properties in many modern urban
architectures can lead to excessive solar heat gain.

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |61

To address these risks, passive design measures incorporated alongside sustainable building
practices become imperative; this includes well-designed water-sensitive green roofs, energyefficient materials and strategic design that incorporates solar shading and natural ventilation.
Proactive measures in building design and construction can mitigate maladaptation risks, fostering
climate-resilient structures that not only withstand the challenges of a changing climate but also
contribute to reduced energy consumption and overall environmental sustainability (see Figure25). Appropriate adaptation to increasing temperatures also has the potential to address ‘coolingpoverty’ – the condition where marginalised communities are forced to make use of inefficient andoften dangerous methods appliances to keep cool (Mazzone 2021). Further strategies are outlinedin the World Green Building Council ‘Climate Resilience in the Built Environment’ Guide (WorldGBC2022).

Figure 25 Threats to buildings under climate change and available adaption measures
CLIMATE CHANGE THREATS

ADAPTATION MEASURES

Increased temperature

Solar shading

Heavy precipitation

Increased insulation

StormsSolar reflective coatings

Flooding

Fabric hardening

Drought

PV roof installation
Domestic batteries
Green facades
Rainwater tanks(Source: Harry Kennard)

Retrofitting existing buildings to maximise
resilience in the face of increasing
environmental hazards will require multiple
policy instruments to ensure sufficient action.
Resilient retrofits can be categorised into three
types: first, structural hardening, which protects
against damage in the event of increased
weather stressors and flood risk; second,
resource conservation measures aimed at
reducing the amount of energy a building
needs – this can be achieved through installing
solar shading, natural ventilation and night-ventcooling, green roofs, or by improving insulation;
finally, measures to improve building energy
supply resilience such as local renewableenergy generation and storage measures(Williams-Eynon 2022).

62| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

New buildings will also need to be built withnew climate extremes taken into consideration
throughout the design and construction
period. Population projections currently
point to increases of around 1.5 billion in thenext thirty years. This expansion will occur
predominantly in the warmest countries
on earth, leading to large expansions of thebuilding stock in places where much of current
housing is provided through informal building
practices. The role of building codes to guide
this expected expansion of building stock is
central to maximising the adaptive capabilitiesof buildings (C40 Cities Climate LeadershipGroup 2024). Buildings serve as the primarymeans through which the harmful effects ofthe environment are modified.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

Building codes need to be updated in the faceof a changing climate. At COP27 in Egypt,
the Global Resiliency Dialogue launchedguidelines enshrining 15 core principles aimed
at advancing resilience in buildings throughbuilding codes and standards (International
Code Council 2022). Emphasizing occupant
health and safety as the primary purposeof codes and standards, these guidelines
distinguish building resilience as crucial forcommunities to recover from weather-related
natural hazards. The principles underscore
the role of science in predicting likely climate
scenarios, designing for them and adaptingbuilding codes accordingly, advocating anapproach to minimum requirements, which
avoids one-size-fits-all solutions.
The development and enforcement of building
codes offer a crucial means to integrate
safety, environmental considerations andadaptability to a changing climate into the built

environment. While building codes traditionally
rely on historical climate data, there is a
growing imperative to incorporate estimatesof future warming, learn from past extreme
weather events and overcome challenges suchas climate data scarcity to update and enhancethese codes (Gupta et al. 2021).
Broader policy guidance is slowly being
developed as awareness adaptation in thebuilt environment becomes more salient. In
2023, the European Commission published thebest practice technical guidance for adapting
the European Union building stock to climatechange (European Commission 2023c), which
outlines the risks and adaptive measures thatcan be taken for buildings in face of increased
heat, storms, heavy precipitation, flooding,
subsidence and drought. Crucially, it also
summarises best practice guidance for policy
makers and industry actors across these risk
domains.

7.1 Building a water‑resilient future for everyone, everywhere
Alongside the challenges of climate change, the global water crisis is an escalating problem thatdemands urgent attention. With global water use, storage and distribution estimated to contribute
10 per cent of global GHG emissions (Water Research Foundation 2023), and the buildings andconstruction being responsible for around 15 per cent of freshwater use (Ding 2014; Baynes et al.
2018; Heravi and Abdolvand 2019; Sustainable Facilities Tool 2024), it is imperative to evaluate therole of the built environment in contributing to and mitigating the water crisis.
This urgent challenge has been highlighted in a recent report ‘Building a water-resilient future’(Montano-Owen and Brady 2023), which presents the magnitude of the global water crisis andoutlines the role of the built environment as a contributory sector. The magnitude of the global
water crisis can be summarised in four challenges:•

Scarcity: Today, nearly four billion people
are affected by water scarcity (Mekonnen
and Hoekstra 2016) and predictions
suggest this number will only rise as global
water demand is projected to increase by
55 per cent by 2050 (OECD 2024).

•

Equity, access and quality: Nearly two billion
people live without access to safe water(Mekonnen and Hoekstra 2016).

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction•

Greenhouse gas emissions: Generated
during the water supply process due toenergy requirements for pumping, treating,desalination, distribution and waste
management.

•

Resilience and climate change: 90 per centof natural disasters are weather-related(Centre for Research on the Epidemiology
of Disasters [CRED] et al. 2015).

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |63

The built environment provides the physical infrastructure that forms the basis of our societies
and economic development, yet the lack of water protection and preservation practices has meant
the built environment has both caused and exacerbated the global water crisis. Tackling the above
challenges, as well as providing safe water to the world’s growing population, is a key responsibility
for the building and construction sector – in line with the urgency to decarbonise the industry by
2050.
The need for change from the sector can be seen across all stages of the value chain, and isreflected across four geo-spatial scales of water use in the built environment industry (seeFigure 26):•

Supply chain: The industrial sector is thesecond largest water user in the supply
chain. Most of the water used during
manufacturing processes cannot bedirectly reused for other purposes – andmay also present a risk to local water
sources from contamination (GerbensLeenes et al. 2018).

•

Buildings use: The consumption
and conservation of water within
individual buildings can have significant
environmental, economic and social
impacts. Key challenges include lack ofmonitoring, inefficient fixtures and systems,
inadequate maintenance, and lack ofawareness or incentives.

•

Construction processes: Water is usedabundantly in dust control (particularly
in demolition projects), earthworks andcement plastering. Although the tracking
of water consumption has not been acommon practice, some studies haveestimated this consumption in the range of
500 to 3,500 l/m2 (Garg et al. 2023).

•

Cities and communities: Urban centres
often face problems related to insufficient
infrastructure, water consumption andloss, wastewater management, and waterdrainage.

Figure 26 Scales of water use in the built environment

Supply chain

Construction processes

Buildings

Cities and communities

The industrial sector is the second
largest water user in the world.

Water is used abundantly inprocesses such as mixing concrete,
dust control, equipment operation,
landscaping and worker amenities.

The consumption and conservationof water within individual buildings

Therefore, it is essential to prioritise

Key challenges include lack of

While citizens require direct water forbasic needs such as drinking water,
cooking and cleaning, our municipal
utilities and services also require
freshwater.

together with reuse and recycling
technologies.

systems, inadequate maintenance,and lack of awareness or incentives.

Water in the manufacturing of building
materials and products is used inindirect processes such as energy
production, and direct processes
including chemical reactions, cooling,
cutting and washing.

economic and social impacts.

Urban centres often face problems
water consumption and loss,
wastewater management, and waterdrainage.

(Source: WorldGBC)

64| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

All stakeholders in the value chain, from suppliers to regulators, have a responsibility to enable
sustainable and equitable development and social justice. The buildings and construction
sector must recognise the urgency of the water crisis and realise where the greatest risks andopportunities are. By following the principles of water management, i.e. Prevent, Measure, Reduce,
Reuse and Restore (see Figure 27), it is possible for the buildings sector to help address the global
water crisis alongside the efforts to adapt to a changing climate and to decarbonise the buildings
sector.

Prevent:

Consider the local needs and look for opportunities to prevent using potable water sources for manufacturing,and operation.
Water
Risks Atlas could be used as reference.
Figure 27 Principles of waterconstruction
management
for theThebuilt
environment

Measure:Understand how much and where water is being used.
Manage losses and leakages.

Reduce:Prioritise on-site or local reuse or recycled water sources. Ensure
efficient use of water during manufacturing and construction andimplement low-flow fittings and features for operation.

Reuse:

Opt for technologies such as rainwater harvesting, or
where possible, grey and blackwater recycling systems.

Restore:Through techniques such as Water
Sensitive Urban Design or nature
based solutions, prepare for
events of high (or low) waterflows, and water treatment,for potential reuse or
final clean discharge
without polluting
sources.

(Source: WorldGBC)

7.2 Resilience in Building Codes in Latin America and the
Caribbean
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB),
in collaboration with the Chile Building Institute(IC), EBP Chile and Chile Green Building Council,
issued in December 2023 the report ‘Resilienceand Sustainability in Building Codes in Latin
America and the Caribbean’ as a technicalnote that provided a regional comparisonand called on strengthening opportunities
regarding resilience in the construction sector
across the region (IDB 2023)9. The analysis
identified that the region’s progress in seismic
and wind codes is much greater than that forfloods, which is still a threat that countries face9

reactively. Likewise, the region has been taking
accelerated steps to incorporate sustainability
aspects in construction projects (homes andbuildings), although this is not necessarilyreflected in building codes. On the other
hand, regarding sustainability aspects, it was
identified that issues related to energy savings
are more advanced than other aspects suchas the efficient use of water, the quality of theindoor environment and the identification ofclimatic zones (IDB 2023). Specific strategies
for earthquakes, wind, floods and sustainability
are described in further detail in the report.

IDB (2023), Resiliencia y sostenibilidad en los códigos de construcción de América Latina y el Caribe:análisis regional comparativo y oportunidades de fortalecimiento. http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0005377

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65

08

Deep Dive - Innovations in businesscases (renovation and green building
construction industry)

The construction sector has among the lowest productivity within the global economy (Mckinsey Global Institute 2017;
van Sante 2022). To meet the global climate challenge, building decarbonisation must accelerate significantly. Relying only
on common construction and renovation practices will not be sufficient. Innovative business models offer an approach
to further strengthen the sector’s capacities to take on that challenge. Increasing renovation depends on a variety offactors, not least strong policy instruments and access to finance. This chapter focuses on innovative business models forrenovation and construction sector by highlighting selected to illustrate the growing interest in certain business models.

8.1 Addressing root causes: central
planning and coordination of therenovation
Construction and renovation typically rely on a highly
fragmented value chain. Streamlining, standardizing,
replicating and thus scaling up renovation solutions requiredifferent business models compared to current practices (deWilde 2019).
A better coordination of the whole renovation process
is a key success factor for innovative business models.
Optimized renovation requires less time and interference at
the construction site and less workforce, ultimately making
renovation less costly. Different to conventional renovation
business models, those projects need a central solution
provider planning upfront and coordinating the construction
process without the need to commission individual trades
one after another.
A recent example from Germany proved that a deep
renovation of a building is possible in just 22 working
days: an old semi-detached house was transformed intoa climate-neutral including the building envelope, newwindows, heat pump with photovoltaic (PV) system, plus
completely new building services (under-floor heating,plumbing, electrics, ventilation), new floors, interior doors
and so on. An hourly-clocked construction schedule was
the basis for this ‘renovation sprint’ (Bauingenieurbüro
Ronald Meyer 2023). Also, in other parts of the world, theoptimisation of communication between and coordinationof involved parties in the construction process is seen as
key to speed up renovation and make it cheaper (Dixit 2022).

66| UNEP |8.2 Completely digitalised andstandardised renovation processes
The next step in accelerating decarbonisation of the existingbuilding stock is to standardise good practice examples
within a building typology and climate zone so they areeasily replicable and scalable. While standardisation ofprocesses is possible without, increasingly, digitalisation isseen as a key to do so (Dixit 2022; Kai-Stefan Schober 2023;
Zhang et al. 2023).
Digitally scanning the building helps to better understandand simulate building renovation solutions and allows fora thorough upfront planning of renovation. An end-toend digitised renovation process allows for prefabricationof facades and roofs to minimize further the work at theconstruction site, saving more time, material, workforce
and stress. There is an increasing number of start-ups
that took this step and act as a centralised solution
provider: 3-D-scanning the building, planning renovation,commissioning prefabricated insulation elements including
technical building equipment, and coordinating therenovation process on site (Ecoworks 2023; Renowate 2023;
Saint-Gobain 2023). As part of their business models, thesecompanies are often also contracting the PV installationthat will supply the building with all electricity needed toheat the building with the heat pump and satisfy the needsof consumers. In this way, the start-ups not only act as aprovider of renovation solutions, but also combine this withthe role of a traditional energy service provider.
Yet these models rely on a supportive governmental
framework. In the Netherlands, homeowners are allowed
to receive a fee from their tenants if they renovate theirbuilding to a net-zero energy standard, in Germany, solution
providers make use of the feed-in tariffs for solar-PV
they install on the roofs. However, the business models
showcase a possible way forward for future renovation
practices and show that innovation in the construction
sector is possible and can be successful.

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

8.3 Reducing risks of investments: buildings performance
contracting
Energy Service Companies (ESCos) havebeen shifting the business models for building
energy performance by introducing energy
efficiency measures and financing theseinvestments through the resulting energy cost
reductions. Buildings Performance Contracting
builds on this idea. In a performance contract,
the residual value of buildings and installations
is being determined by measurement. Those
suppliers who guarantee the highest residual
value of a building, e.g. through proper
maintenance, life-enhancing measures or reuse of building materials will be contracted.
This model is being used in the Belgian region
Flanders.
Buildings Performance Contracting
acknowledges the problems that are causedby the separation of construction andmaintenance of a building. If those being
responsible for construction do not take careof the maintenance after the construction,
it prevents learning from failures in planningand construction. An incentive framework isneeded for parties to collaborate to improvethe building over its lifetime. An energy service
contract usually has a term of 15 years in orderto generate sufficient income to refinance theinvestment. The business model proposedby Buildings Performance Contracting is
aimed at contracts with a maximum term of
10 years. The business case results from ahigher residual value of the building throughthe promotion of measures that are of long
duration, e.g., renovation. This residual value
at the end of the project is guaranteed by
the contract, which includes performanceindicators for energy performance andcomfort. The status quo of the building and thecomponents are being checked through regular
maintenance throughout the 10-year-longcontract period.

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

A way of further institutionalising the role ofa single service provider is the set up of socalled one-stop shops for renovation (European
Commission et al. 2021), which accompany
the whole customer journey of an energy
renovation. There are privately, publicly or
semi-publicly led one-stop shops (Pardalis etal. 2022), some consist of a single actor, others
are working in teams or stable cooperation(Laffont-Eloire et al. 2017). One-stop shops are
putting in place a variety of business models,some of them are similar to an Energy Service
Companies, other one-stop shops focus on
facilitating the renovation and others offer an
all-inclusive renovation package (Cicmanova et
al. 2020).
An example of a one-stop shop that organises
financing is Oktave in France, supported by
the French region Grand-Est (Oktave 2021).
The organisation has set up a EUR€1.5 million
advance payment fund to pre-finance grants
for homeowners to renovate their homes.
With this budget, the group provides advancepayments that will be covered by other grants(e.g. national subsidy schemes, regional or
local grant schemes) that the homeowneris only entitled to receive after an initialinvestment has taken place. The aim of these
programmes is to support owners by providing
administrative, financial and technical support
for the renovation process.
One-stop shops are increasingly being set
up in Europe and also beyond. Organisationsin the USA and Australia are pushing for thedevelopment of more integrated renovation
services, often with a special focus on lowincome households (Johnston 2021; ACEEE
2022; Kresowik and Reeg 2022). These efforts
promote the opportunities that renovations
have in supporting building decarbonisation
alongside enhancing asset value and improvingbuilding quality.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |

67

09

Deep dive – Nature‑based solutions
and biophilic design
In an effort to increase sustainable and environmentally-friendly architectural solutions, naturebased solutions (NbS) and biophilic design are two approaches that enhance sustainability byplacing nature at the heart of architectural and urban planning through local knowledge andengagement with natural designs and construction.
NbS approaches aim to create a harmonious, symbiotic relationship between the built environment
and the natural world. They have been defined as “actions to protect, sustainably manage, andrestore natural or modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively,
simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits’’ (International Union forConservation of Nature (IUCN) 2024). NbS are inspired by nature and use the intricate workingsof natural ecosystems to offer a range of services, from indoor climate conditioning and water
purification to carbon sequestration and bio-diverse habitat provision. NbS can improve air andwater quality, mitigate biodiversity loss, sequester carbon and reduce urban heat island effects(Matthews et al. 2022; Marvin et al. 2023).
Underpinned by a holistic understanding of ecosystems, NbS recognise the complexity and theinterconnections between different natural and built systems, and see nature as a resource. At
present, this resource is being heavily depleted. Total investments in NbS have been estimated at
US$200 billion per year, which is less than three per cent of the US$7 trillion in finance flows thathave been assessed to have a direct negative impact on nature in a recent UNEP report (Birch et al.
2023).

Photo by Liam Andrew on Unsplash

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Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

9.1 Exploring NbS technologies

9.2 Biophilia and biophilic design

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) technologies attempt tomimic or enhance natural processes to provide ecosystemservices, such as green roofs and walls, permeable
pavements, rain gardens and constructed wetlands. They
utilize natural materials and processes, making themmore sustainable and less disruptive than conventional
infrastructure.

While NBS seek to integrate nature into built environment
design, biophilic design seeks to integrate nature by creating
a sense of connection and engagement. This can involvethe use of natural materials and patterns, the creation ofviews and access to nature, the incorporation of naturallight and ventilation, and the design of spaces that facilitate
interaction with nature.

Green roofs and walls, for instance, provide insulation,
reduce urban heat island effects, improve air quality andcreate habitat for wildlife. Permeable pavements allow
rainwater to infiltrate into the ground, reducing runoff andrecharging groundwater. Rain gardens and constructedwetlands filter pollutants from storm water, enhancing water
quality and providing habitat.

While it incorporates many aspects of traditional building
practice, biophilic design is an emerging field. Its designprinciples are centred on the idea of creating a direct andmeaningful connection with nature. This can be achieved
through various strategies, including the incorporation ofnatural light and ventilation, the use of natural materials andpatterns, the creation of views and access to nature, andthe design of spaces that facilitate interaction with nature.
Examples of biophilic architectural aspects include living
plants, living walls, natural textures and materials, and viewsof natural spaces.

Adopting NbS has the potential to offer a range of benefits
including helping to mitigate climate change by sequestering
carbon, enhancing biodiversity by creating habitats forvarious species, and promoting water and air quality byfiltering pollutants. NbS can also increase the resilience of
cities to extreme weather events and climate change byimproving storm water management and reducing heatstress.
Integrating NbS into buildings and cities involves rethinking
the design process from site selection and analysis throughdesign and construction, to maintenance and monitoring.
It requires a multidisciplinary approach, involving
architects, landscape architects, engineers, ecologists andother stakeholders. These complexities have led to theobservation that their cost effectiveness is often uncertain,
and that inadequate financing can limit the effectivenessof NbS (Seddon et al. 2020). Despite its great potential forbenefit, it has been argued that NbS requires social andenvironmental safeguards to ensure it achieves the positive
community and biodiversity impacts it aims to achieve(Melanidis and Hagerman 2022).
In response to these concerns, the International Union for
the Conservation of Nature has published a global standard
aimed at yielding a consistent and verifiable implementationof NbS (IUCN 2020). This allows for the full costs andbenefits of NbS projects to be assessed, and ensuretransparency, inclusivity and effective management going
forward.

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

The benefits of biophilic design include a greater connection
to nature that has the potential to enhance well-being andproductivity, reduce stress and promote creativity andlearning. In healthcare settings, it has been found to bebeneficial (Zhao et al. 2022). A study from the Universityof Oregon found that some employee absences could be
attributed to office environments that lacked a view ofnature (Elzeyadi 2011).
Choice of construction material is also important forachieving biophilic design principles. A recent analysis
of circularity in wood construction found it has inherent
advantages such as lower lifecycle emissions and energy
consumption compared to non-wood materials (UNECE
2023). This is particularly relevant in Africa, which isundergoing a rapid expansion of urban environments. A
comprehensive review of the potential of wood and natural
materials for circularity in Africa was published in early 2023
(Westerholm 2023).
The Biophilic Cities Network is a global network of cities thatare committed to becoming more biophilic. These cities are
implementing a variety of strategies, from creating green
networks and corridors to promoting urban agriculture
and biodiversity. Cities like Singapore and Copenhagenare starting to use the principles of biophilic design tocreate better living environments. By incorporating naturalelements into the built environment, biophilic design has
the potential to reduce energy consumption, water usage
and waste production. Further information around biophilic
design, including case studies, can be found at the World
Green Building Council’s ‘Circular Built Environment
Playbook’ (WorldGBC 2023c).

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |

69

10

Roadmaps for buildings andconstruction
The GlobalABC, under the lead of UNEP and in partnership with UNOPS and UN-Habitat, isdeveloping guidance and tools to support national and sub-national governments in creating
their climate action roadmaps for the buildings and construction sector. The guidance and tools
are being piloted in Ghana, Senegal, Bangladesh and India, and they will be made available more
broadly during the fourth quarter of 2024.
Climate action roadmaps defining short, medium and long-term actions have the capacity toaccelerate inclusive climate action for the sector by bringing stakeholders together and setting
clear and achievable goals. The ‘Human Settlement - Climate Action Pathways’ report, which
defines how to achieve the Paris Agreement, calls for all countries to develop their buildings andconstruction roadmaps by 2030 (GlobalABC 2021). As of 2023, the GlobalABC has supported thedevelopment of 15 national and regional roadmaps and 34 countries worldwide have adopted aclear strategy for decarbonising the sector (see Figure 28).

Figure 28 Global roadmaps for buildings and construction(Source: UNEP GlobalABC)

70| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

There are efforts to develop and align national
climate actions across Latin America. In
addition to the case study of Colombia (seesection 11.2), Costa Rica developed a National
Decarbonization Plan 2018-2050 (Governmentof Costa Rica 2018), with a specific section
addressing the development of buildings
subject to high efficiency standards andlow emission processes. These are set tobe implemented under specific milestones
for years 2025, 2030 and 2050, including
new materials, low emission technologies
and electrification, renewable energies, andresilience. At subnational level, Costa Rica
Green Building Council, with the support of
WRI and the WorldGBC, has developed fourroadmaps for the municipalities of Santa Ana,
Belen, Curridabat and Moravia.
Chile is also currently developing a national
strategy for the carbon footprint of thebuilding sector in response to the lack of
mandatory regulations or incentives regarding
environmental reporting and carbon emissions.
Chile aims to develop an alignment strategy
with the national policies supporting carbon
neutrality by 2050.
Crucially, even if there are no specific laws or
regulations for the buildings and construction
sector, the roadmaps highlight NDCs as acommitment by the national government (seeChapter 3). These NDCs serve as a foundation
for decision-making when setting specificmilestones and goals. In this context, theroadmaps serve as a strategic document toimplement this commitment, emphasizing thesignificance of including the building sector
as a key aspect of the economy in achieving
national decarbonisation goals. Additionally, as
part of the Zero Carbon Readiness Framework
project (WorldGBC 2024a), the GlobalABC and
the WorldGBC support regions such as theAmericas, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East andNorth Africa (MENA) in taking enabling actions
to create national roadmaps.

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

In Europe, WorldGBC’s BuildingLife project has
seen twelve national Green Building Councils
develop decarbonisation roadmaps for thesector, supplemented by a regional European
Union Policy roadmap (WorldGBC 2024b). The
Green Building Councils are now working withindustry and policy makers on implementing
the recommended actions and increasing
accountability across the sector to deliver on
short, medium and long-term goals.
To accelerate roadmap development andachieve the Climate Action Pathways,
GlobalABC has partnered with UNEP, UNOPS
and UN-Habitat to design and pilot a new
methodology and supportive tools, to help
countries and sub-national governments in thisendeavour. UNOPS was mandated to develop
the methodological approach and UN-Habitat
is piloting it in Ghana, Senegal and Bangladesh.
A local social enterprise, Development
Alternatives, is piloting it in two states inIndia. The methodology seeks to enhance
stakeholders’ collaboration and follow a stepby-step approach based on the new iteration of
the GlobalABC framework. The final guidance
document and the tools will be made available
during the fourth quarter of 2024.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |71

10.1 A new framework for Buildings andConstruction Roadmap development

Figure 29 GlobalABC Roadmap Action
Framework| I N C LU S I O N A N

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The new GlobalABC framework (see Figure 29 GlobalABC Roadmap
Action Framework) aims to offer a more holistic approach todecarbonisation by better considering the entire building value chain andthe carbon emissions related to material manufacturing and building
construction, as well as integrating climate adaptation and inclusionas central pieces of any decarbonisation strategy. The new GlobalABC
framework comprises four objectives that cut across five action areas.
The four objectives are (1) Embodied Carbon; (2) Operational Carbon
Reduction; (3) Adaptation; and (4) Wellbeing and Inclusion to align with
the Paris Agreement and the Climate Action Pathways. Introducing
objectives into the GlobalABC framework aims to facilitate goal setting
and monitoring.

gic Priorities
Strate

U
nd
la
tia
pa

Supported by UNEP, the GlobalABC and UNOPS are developing acollaborative and step-by-step approach based on the new iterationof the GlobalABC framework to guide governments in designing theirclimate action roadmaps to turn their ambitions into action.

w
Ne

Bu

il d

in

(Source: GlobalABC)

The framework considers the following five action areas:•

Action Area 1 – Strategic Priorities: refers to national, regional and local development planning processes that define
development objectives, their prioritisation and implementation. This action area recognises the importance ofembedding inclusive climate action in the buildings and construction sector at the highest level of governance to give aclear direction and mandate to line ministries and local governments for its implementation.

•

Action Area 2 – Spatial and Urban Development: refers to how people occupy the land at a country, regional and urban
scale and the supportive regulations and processes, including land use regulations, urban development planning (i.e.
Master plan), urban project implementation, and natural environment protection. Many spatial planning decisions impact
the capacity to mitigate carbon emissions and ensure the adaptation and resiliency of the building and construction
sector and the inclusion and wellbeing of the population.

•

Action Area 3 – New Buildings: includes all phases of planning and delivering a new building – from project preparation to
procurement, design and construction. It also considers material, system and appliance choices. Construction planningand delivery are critical phases for climate action. During those phases, designers, architects, engineers and developers
have the opportunity to make inclusive, sustainable and resilient choices for the future.

•

Action Area 4 – Existing Buildings: considers all building management phases, including operation, maintenance,
renovation, refurbishment and decommissioning. It also includes how materials, systems and appliances are used andselected during the building’s use life. This action area considers, more specifically, the reduction of operational carbon
emissions, the adaptation of the building stock and circularity.

•

Action Area 5 – Construction Supply Chain: includes raw material extraction, system, appliance and material
manufacturing, commercialisation, importation and the norms regulating the supply chain. This action area is criticalto reducing the building’s embodied carbon by acting upstream, implementing circularity principles and sustainableproduction as well as ensuring equity and well-being for the industry workforce and the community.

The five action areas were defined to cover the entire building and construction value chain and lifecycle to ensure climate
action is comprehensive, leverages synergies and promotes circularity. In addition, the five action areas were set so eacharea could be considered independently and adopted by a group of stakeholders.

72| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

The GlobalABC Roadmap guidance follows a step-by-step approach (see Figure 30
Roadmap implementation process) that is underpinned by easy-to-use tools that seek tostandardise and simplify the roadmap creation process and to promote knowledge and evidencebased decision making.
Figure 30
Roadmap implementation process

1. Mobilisation
2. Stakeholder engagement

Engage3. Baseline assessment

Assess4. Challenges and opportunities
identification
5. Prioritisation
6. Action, timeline and targets

Roadmap

7. Implementation & monitoring
set-up

Implement(Source: GlobalABC)

The approach includes the following six steps:•

Step 1. Mobilisation: This phase
initiates the roadmap developmentby identifying stakeholders andsetting the stage for successful
completion and implementation.
Most importantly, the mobilisation
step is an opportunity to define
the roadmap scope and objectives
and take stoke on existing
government commitments toward
decarbonisation as the initialpoint for the goal-setting exercise
accompanying the roadmap
development.

•

Step 2. Stakeholder engagement:
Engagement is critical throughout
the roadmap development. The
GlobalABC roadmap guidanceemphasises a collaborative
approach and offers opportunities
for co-creation. This approach
will ensure the roadmap is basedon an accurate and sharedunderstanding of the context
and that stakeholders agree withthe roadmap and engage in its
implementation. Furthermore,during this phase, stakeholder
groups are established and theengagement plan is developed andagreed upon.

•

Step 3. Baseline assessment:
The purpose is to develop acomprehensive understandingof the buildings and construction
sector. The baseline assessment
looks at both (1) the physicalenvironment through a quantitative
data-driven approach and (2)the enabling environment using
qualitative data. The assessment
measures the gaps between
business-as-usual projections
and the government targets
and identifies challenges andopportunities in achieving the four
GlobalABC objectives. This holistic
and innovative methodology lays
the ground for a knowledge anddata-driven approach to designing
the roadmap.

•

Step 4. Prioritisation of challenges
and opportunities: The purpose
is to identify the logical links
and interactions between thechallenges and the opportunities
and how they impact theachievement of the four GlobalABC
objectives. This step leverages
a root-cause analysis and mindmapping approach that will
support the identification of key
actions and their prioritisation
during the following step.

•

Step 5. Actions and timeline:
Building on the above steps, thecentral piece of the roadmap aims
to define the theory of change, theactions and their timeline for thesector’s decarbonisation. Thoseelements are defined collectively
during workshops. The guidance
provides examples of goodpractices to inspire stakeholders to
identify actions.

•

Step 6. Implementation andmonitoring set up: The purpose isto define action plans and assigns
responsibilities for the roadmap
implementation. It also defines
how progress will be measured.

This standardised approach seeks to overcome the barriers impeding the widespread developmentof climate action roadmaps for the building and construction sector and support the call to action
for the transition towards a decarbonised and sustainable construction sector.
Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |73

10.2 National implementation: Colombia national roadmap to
net‑zero buildings
The National Zero Carbon Building Roadmap
was launched in Colombia in June 2022, as abuilding pathway to achieve net-zero carbon
emissions from the buildings sector by 2050,
in line with the country’s 2050 strategy. The
roadmap sets specific targets to scale net-zeroin terms of operational carbon and embodied
carbon for new buildings and for existingbuildings. In addition to the main targets, theroadmap proposes 67 specific goals and 163transformative actions that must be carried out
by the different actors of the public and private
sector, in the short (2030), medium (2040) andlong term (2050), to ensure that all buildings are
net-zero by 2050. These goals are grouped into
six action categories: (i) corporate practices;(ii) urban planning; (iii) materials; (iv) newbuildings; (v) existing buildings; and (vi) informal
settlements.
After the roadmap was launched, theimplementation process began with specificstrategies with the national government, withlocal governments and with the private sector.
Those strategies are summarized below:•

Joint actions with the national government:
To begin the implementation of theroadmap, a prioritisation exercise
involving the Ministry of Environment
and Colombia Green Building Council(GBC) was conducted to understandthe specific actions that should be
implemented immediately during thecurrent governmental term. Based on
those actions, a work plan for each national
government stakeholder was initiated.
These work plans include contributions
to public policies and the identification ofopportunities for articulation with current
initiatives, specifically with the Ministry of
Housing, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministryof Industry and the Department of National
Planning.

•

Joint actions with local governments:
Leader cities such as Bogotá and Cali that
already had issued city action plans to
net-zero buildings, have developed local
regulations and incentives to advancetowards net-zero. Cali recently adopted theSustainable Construction Manual for thecity and Bogotá issued the Eco urbanismand Sustainable Construction Policy. Other
local governments such as Envigado andMedellín have been working on incentives
for energy efficiency, and resources havebeen allocated to start a five-year projectcalled ‘Energy Efficiency for the Transition
to Carbon Neutral Cities in Colombia’ thatwill be implemented by the Development
Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean(CAF) and the Inter-American Development
Bank (IDB) and executed by Colombia GBC
to assist Cali, Barranquilla and Pasto toaccelerate decarbonisation.

•

Joint actions with the private sector: The
private sector has been a major driver ofsustainability in Colombia; therefore, it has
to play a major role in the implementationof the roadmap. To articulate the actionsof the value chain, Colombia GBC isleading a round table with 14 industry
associations that includes the Construction
Chamber, the Concrete, Plastic, Still, Glass,
Ceramic, Envelop, Plumbing associationand the financial institution association.
In addition, Colombia GBC has publishedthe Decarbonisation Guide for Companies
in the Construction Sector for eachcompany to develop its own roadmap todecarbonisation.

•

Allocation of resources to implement
medium-term actions from the roadmap:
As part of the ‘Energy Efficiency for theTransition to Carbon Neutral Cities inColombia’ project, several actions fromthe roadmap will be implemented during
the following years, including labelling ofbuildings and effective implementationof energy and water saving regulations,dissemination and education.

These actions represent significant progress inthe path towards carbon neutrality of buildings
and it is expected that other actions will be
leveraged from this starting point.

74| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

10.3 Regional Roadmap for
Buildings and Construction in
China’s Greater Bay Area
Located in the southern coastal region ofChina, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao
Greater Bay Area (GBA) stands as a formidable
megalopolis. Despite occupying less than one
percent of the country’s land area, it holds
a prominent position as China’s economic
and innovation powerhouse, contributing
approximately 11% to the nation’s economy.
By undertaking comprehensive measures
to enhance the sustainability, efficiency, andresilience of buildings within this megalopolis, asubstantial stride can be made toward China’s
ambitious goal of achieving carbon neutrality
by 2060.
To facilitate the Greater Bay Area’s transition
towards a low-carbon and resourceefficient buildings and construction sector,
the German Energy Agency (dena) took the
initiative to develop a comprehensive regional
roadmap which was launched in May 2023.
The Regional Roadmap for Buildings andConstruction in China’s Greater Bay Area
incorporates recommendations for eight key
action areas, aligning with the UNEP Global
Alliance for Buildings and Construction(GlobalABC) framework (dena, 2023). To
ensure practicality and incorporate local
perspectives, the project has actively engaged
a diverse group of stakeholders, with prominent
partners including the China Academy of
Building Research (CABR), the ICLEI East Asia
Secretariat, and international members of the
GlobalABC.

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Key findings:•

Urban Planning: Promote integrated
sustainable urban planning between core
GBA regions, including smart city solutions.

•

New Buildings: significantly increase
ambition target and building codes in all
project phases, whilst mitigating the risk of
stranded long-term investments.

•

Existing Buildings: Create awarenessfor the decarbonisation of the building
stock. Prioritize public buildings to lead byexample. Accelerate scalable modularized
retrofit measures.

•

Building Operations: Implement energy
management obligations and processes todrive an energy efficient building operation
through information and behaviour change.

•

Appliances & Systems: Increase supply anddemand for high energetic performance inappliances.

•

Materials: Integrate life cycle perspectives
through locally sourced and processed
low carbon materials and recycling
programmes.

•

Resilience: Implement future proof planningapproaches and accelerate dynamic
response speed and flexibility to climate
emergencies.

•

Clean Energy: Scale up local renewableenergy and regional grid supply, implement
smart city solutions.

•

Enablers: Key is to establish and run aneffective stakeholder engagement network(including public, private, academic andfinancial sectors) and foster systeminnovation.

•

Considering the complexity of the building
sector and its interlinked activity fields
highlighted in this roadmap, the selectionof focus areas by local stakeholders could
be the reasonable next step. To that end,
authors suggest that stakeholders choose
their respective actions, focusing on
applicable ownership, implementation, andmonitoring.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |75

Figure 31 Regional Roadmap for Buildings and Construction in China’s Greater Bay Area
Regional Roadmap
For Buildings and Constructionin China’s Greater Bay Area

Key Findings
China

Towards a zero-emission, efficient, and resilient sector
for achieving carbon neutrality targets

New Buildings
Scalability: significantly increase ambition target and building
codes in all project phases. Mitigate the risk of stranded longterm investments.

Existing Buildings
Create awareness for the decarbonisation of the building stock.
Prioritize public buildings to leadby example. Accelerate scalable
modularized retrofit measures.

Regional Context
1%

Appliances & Systems

Materials

Increase supply and demand forhigh energetic performance in appliances.

China’s land
space

Integrate life cycle perspectives
through low carbon materials andrecycling programmes.

Building Operations
6%

GUANGZHOU

China’spopulation

HUIZHOUFOSHAN

China’s
economySHENZHENJIANGMENZHUHAI

Promote integrated sustainableurban planning between core GBA
zones, including smart city solutions.

11%

DONGGUANZHONGSHAN

Urban Planning

Implement energy management
obligations and processes to drive
an energy efficient building operation through information andbehaviour change.

ZHAOQING

Hong Kong

Macau

Climate Risks
Urban Heat Island
Flood
TyphoonClimate Policy
Outline2020
China’s 30–60
strategy announced

2015
Paris Agreement, international
treaty on climate change

The Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) has launched a Roadmap
process to facilitate a shared language andvision for achieving the complete decarbonisation of the sector.

2030
China’s target to peakcarbon emissions

2060
China’s target for
carbon neutrality

2050
international target to limit global
temperature increase to 2°C

The project team applied this approach to
the region, starting in 2022, with the aim ofengaging multiple stakeholders. This highly dynamic megalopolis has the potential to play apioneering role in supporting China’s carbon
neutrality journey.

Resilience

Clean Energy

Enablers

Implement forward-looking planning approaches and accelerate
dynamic response speed and flexibility to climate emergencies.

Scale up local renewable energy
and regional grid supply, implement smart city solutions.

Key to achieve the complex transition is establishing an effective
stakeholder engagement network,
including public, private, academic and financial sectors, and fostering of system innovation.

Intersted in learning more?
We invite you to take a deeper
look into the complete study.

(Source: dena)

10.4 Building national coalitions for decarbonising buildings in
MexicoAccording to the National Institute of Statistics,
Geography and Informatics (INEGI 2024),
there are around 35 million dwellings in
Mexico. Nearly 8.5 million dwellings requirerenovations and/or an extension of their spaces
to address existing deficiencies. A particularchallenge for undertaking these renovations
and the construction of energy efficient andlow-carbon buildings is that municipalities
across Mexico, who have the responsibility of
regulating building construction, lack capacity
to direct these actions. This highlights the needfor improved capacity at local levels.

76| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

National coalitions are critical to creating a
multi-stakeholder approach to supporting
the decarbonisation of the buildings andconstruction sector. Such approaches canbuild multi-institutional and multi-jurisdictional
support around efforts to improve the designand construction of buildings and bring incommunities of practice and civil society.
The Mexican Chapter of the Global Alliancefor Buildings and Construction carried out amapping of the key stakeholders currently
working in Mexico on sustainable construction
and the various activities they are engaged in to
support improving buildings quality, energy andenvironmental performance and resilience.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

In 2023, more than 20 institutions, including multilateral banks, NGOs, government agencies,
international cooperation and implementing agencies, worked on topics that included: green
financing, gender and social inclusion, capacity building, advancing the regulatory framework, anddigitalisation. The activities were conducted in different regions of the country, implemented atnational and local level (see Box 5).

Box 5

Buildings sustainability and decarbonisation activities across Mexico

The following are international initiatives currently in implementation throughout Mexico: the USAID Partnership for
Net Zero Cities (RTI 2023), the World Resources Institute’s Efficient Buildings Challenge (WRI 2024), the International
Finance Corporation’s Market Accelerator for Green Construction Program, the CEELA project by the Swiss Agency
for Development and Cooperation (Swiss Confederation 2024), the Programme for Energy Efficiency in Buildings(PEEB) ( 2024), the Energy Partnership Programme by the Danish Energy Agency (Climate and Energy Cooperation2024), and the Energy Efficiency Refurbishment of Social Housing in Mexico (GIZ 2024).
The World Resources Institute in Mexico (WRI México) coordinates the Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA) in
11 subnational jurisdictions, supporting them on implementing energy efficiency public policies and pilot projects(WRI 2019). In 2023, WRI México implemented the second year of the Building Challenge in Mexico City, the state ofSonora and the first edition in the municipality of Monterrey, with the participation of 30 companies registering 50
buildings to achieve ten per cent of energy consumption reduction by implementing energy efficiency measures.

As an example of the national collaborations
being scaled across Mexico, the DKTI Vivienda
programme, implemented by the German
Technical Cooperation (GIZ) from 2018 to2023, on behalf of German Federal Ministry
for Economic Cooperation and Development(BMZ), increased the energy efficiency of morethan 7,300 homes, improving the comfort andliving conditions of more than 29,500 people(GIZ 2023a). With a total estimated mitigationof 8,850 tCO2eq, capacity building, digitalisationand social inclusion were at the centre of therefurbishment solutions. Led by the Ministryof Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development(SEDATU), the programme worked withmultiple partners in the country, including: theIntegrated Systematic Savings Programme(ASI FIPATERM), Habitat for Humanity
Mexico, the National Workers’ Housing Fund
Institute (INFONAVIT), the National Housing
Commission (CONAVI) and the National
Coordination for Self-produced Housing.

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

The technical and financial feasibility of building
improvement solutions were tested in different
climate zones through 62 pilot refurbishment
projects of both commercially and selfconstructed dwellings. Measures included
thermal insulation, high performance windows,
shading devices, replacement of household
appliances, photovoltaic systems, solar water
heaters and controlled mechanical ventilation
with heat exchangers. The pilot projects served
to update national housing programmes andprovide policy recommendations that ensure
the continuity and scalability of the measures.
The programme’s projected annual impacts
estimate the energy efficiency rehabilitation of
2,000 dwellings and an average mitigation of
4,000 tCO2eq (GIZ 2023b).

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In addition, digital literacy was promoted using
user friendly web and mobile apps for informing
households on energy use and bioclimatic
design choices (Gobierno de México 2024a)
through massive open online courses (INAFED2022) and the instrumentation of dwellings
with sensor and data processing equipment
for monitoring energy use. The DKTI Vivienda
programme effectively combined the social
and technological dimensions of housing
renovation by simultaneously utilising abottom-up participatory approach and also
by designing constructive solutions throughtechnical support in the field following a wholehouse approach (Gobierno de México 2024b).
Supporting efforts to decarbonise Mexico’sbuilding sector, the Ministry of Finance andPublic Credit (SHCP) released Mexico’s
Sustainable Taxonomy in March 2023 (SHCP
2023). The construction sector is one of thesix economic sectors for which technicalassessment criteria were defined. Metrics andthresholds were specified for ten economic
activities within the construction sector
including: new construction and renovationof residential buildings, new construction
and renovation of commercial buildings,
construction of industrial warehouses, airconditioning systems, and two civil works
activities.
The publishing of the Sustainable Taxonomy
triggered the creation of financial instrumentsby commercial banks such as green
mortgages. Technical assistance provided by
the International Finance Corporation (IFC)
was key for developing green mortgages (IFC
2023a) and promoting broader adoption ofcertified sustainable construction by providing
a partial credit guarantee for the issuance of agreen bond for 800 million Mexican pesos (IFC,
2023b).

Photo by Mark Boss on Unsplash

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11

Buildings BreakthroughOn December 6, 2023, at COP28 in Dubai, the Governments of France and Morocco, along with the
UN Environment Programme (UNEP), launched Buildings Breakthrough, an initiative that aims totransform the building sector—a sector responsible for 37 per cent of energy and process-related
CO2 emissions and 21 per cent of global GHG emissions—towards near zero emissions and climate
resilience by 2030 (UNEP 2023).
Buildings Breakthrough is part of the Breakthrough Agenda, a framework for countries, businesses
and civil society to strengthen their actions in key emitting sectors. The initiative is co-led by the
Ministry for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion of France and the Ministry of National
Territory Planning, Land Planning, Housing and City Policy of the Kingdom of Morocco, andcoordinated by GlobalABC (Climate Champions 2022).
Buildings Breakthrough aims to make clean technologies and sustainable solutions the mostaffordable, accessible and attractive option in all regions by 2030. The UNEP/GlobalABC
secretariat, the IEA and the International Renewable Energy Agency, along with the High-level
Climate Champions, will undertake an annual assessment of global progress in the sector. This
assessment will be closely aligned with the UNEP/GlobalABC annual Global Status Report for
Buildings and Construction. As of February 2024, 28 countries have pledged their commitment to
the Buildings Breakthrough initiative.
The 28 countries that have pledged their commitment to Buildings Breakthrough are: Armenia,
Austria, Canada, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, GuineaBissau, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway,
Senegal, Sweden, Tunisia, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, the USA and Zambia, along with theEuropean Commission.
The Buildings Breakthrough Agenda outlines the actions that need to be taken and calls for theacceleration of the development, strengthening and implementation of actions across the buildings
and construction sector. The initiative stresses the need for improved coordination among
countries and stakeholders at national, regional and international levels to harmonise definitions,assessment frameworks and certifications for near zero emission and resilient buildings.
The Buildings Breakthrough Agenda highlights that governments should collaborate to agree on
definitions, performance metrics and certification schemes for whole life net-zero carbon emission
and resilient buildings, with regional differences, and on shared international mechanisms fordata sharing of exemplary projects. National and sub-national governments should collectively
establish procurement commitments for net-zero buildings, join low-carbon material alliances andset up commitments on deploying clean, efficient heating and cooling technologies.
The Agenda seeks for countries to increase funding for net-zero carbon building construction
and renovations and improve coordination by creating a matchmaking platform, supported byvarious stakeholders, to serve as a single point of contact for emerging and developing countries.
In addition, countries and companies should collaborate to identify knowledge gaps, align research
priorities with policy goals, expand and strengthen networks across all relevant actors, enhancecommunication of research and best practices, assist developing countries in enhancing building
energy codes, and deliver training using government projects as a model.

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12

Key recommendations for policy
makers and decision makers
The 2023 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction shows the global buildings
and construction sector is not on track towards aligning with the Paris Agreement goals andtransitioning to an efficient, resilient and net-zero carbon buildings stock by 2050.
To support the buildings and construction sector to accelerate progress towards meeting the 2023
Global Status Report highlights a set of actor specific recommendations.

Photo by Matteo Flaminio on Unsplash

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For policy makers and government
decision makers• Develop and implement climate

action roadmaps: As of 2023, 161
countries still need to develop andimplement their climate action
roadmaps for the buildings andconstruction sector. Policymakers
should prioritise the creation ofthese roadmaps at national andsub-national scales that define
short, medium and long-term
actions to decarbonise the sector.

• Strengthen building energy

codes: A majority of the world
lacks regulations addressing
energy performance in buildings.
Policymakers should work towards
implementing stricter building
energy codes, aligned with netzero targets, to improve the energy
performance of both new andexisting buildings.

• Increase investment indecarbonising buildings: Despite
an increase in investments in 2022,
the amount is expected to fall in
2023 due to higher borrowing costs
and increased construction costs.
Policymakers should provide clear
market signals to drive innovationand explore ways to incentivise
and increase investment in energy
efficiency and the construction ofwhole life net-zero carbon buildings.

• Develop and implement policy andregulatory approaches to reduce
embodied carbon in the sector
through reuse, circularity andnatural or bio-based materials.

• Promote retrofitting of existingbuildings: The current retrofit rateof the building stock is around 1 percent per year, with these retrofits
typically achieving less than 15
per cent reduction in energy
intensity. Policymakers should
promote and incentivise extensive
retrofitting to improve energy
efficiency and reduce emissions
by targeting accelerating efficiency
improvement to between five to ten
per cent per year.

For private organisations• Adopt climate action roadmaps:

Private organisations, particularly
those in the construction sector,
should adopt and implement
climate action roadmaps to guidetheir decarbonisation efforts andincentivise market-place innovationof building products, technologies
and systems.

• Invest in energy-efficient andnet-zero carbon buildings:
Organisations should prioritise
investment in energy-efficientand whole life net-zero carbon
buildings for their own assets andinvestment portfolios, contributing
to the overall decarbonisation of
the sector.

• Promote and implement highperformance retrofitting: Privateorganisations should focus on
retrofitting their existing buildings
to improve their energy efficiency
and reduce their carbon footprint
and taking advantage of incentives
for best available low or zerocarbon technologies.

• Understand their social impacts:

Organisations involved in thebuildings and construction
sector need to frame their rolein supporting justice and equity
within their scopes of influence forthe sector and seek to empower adiversity of communities throughtheir work.

For researchers and NGOs

• Support the development ofevidence: Researchers and NGOs
can provide valuable input andsupport in the development ofclimate action roadmaps throughresearch and analysis to provide
an evidence base around whole
life zero carbon technologies,
materials, reuse and renovation
designs, along with evaluation andfeedback to ensure policies androadmaps are comprehensive,
achievable and effective.

• Build the information set forbuildings decarbonisation:
Researchers, government andprivate organisations need topartner to develop and deploy
processes for building theinformation set, data and dataframeworks, to support building
decarbonisation, such as Building
Passports (Hartenberger et al.
2021).

• Raise awareness and advocate forpolicy change: NGOs can help raiseawareness about the importanceof decarbonising the buildings andconstruction sector and advocate
for policy changes to support
this goal such as through more
inclusive designs and sustainable
design approaches.

• Promote and strengthen cross-sectoral collaborations from thebuildings and construction sector
with inter-dependent sectors, suchas health, agriculture and cultural
heritage.

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Annex: Global Buildings Climate Tracker(GBCT) method
The GBCT was developed to monitor the progress towards the decarbonisation of the building
stock worldwide. The tracker is a composite indicator comprising seven indicators, described asa ‘decarbonisation index’ for buildings. The index monitors the progress towards the final goal of
decarbonizing the building sector by 2050.
The process to calculate the final index comprises four steps: data collection and processing,normalization, weighting and aggregation, composite index calculation and analysis. To monitor
the status of the seven indicators included in the index, the GBCT relies on extensive data researchusing global data sets that are consistently evaluated to ensure their quality. The most recent
available data allows analysing the decarbonisation progress during the 2015-2022 period.
During the normalisation step, all the indicators are translated to a common scale by dividing theobservations by the total range between their value at the starting point in 2015 and their goal value
in 2050. Once the indicators are normalised, the CO2 emissions indicator is used as a multiplier
while the other six indicators are aggregated using a weighted sum, with weights established in
the first edition of the GBCT: impact indicators 37 per cent and action indicators 63 per cent. Thenthe final composite index is obtained and contrasted with the reference path towards the whole life
zero carbon goal in 2050.
The first edition of the GBCT was released in 2020 as part of the Global Status Report for Buildings
and Construction that year. In this third edition of the tracker, the goals for all the indicators
were revised to increase the consistency among them and the final decarbonisation goal of thecomposite index. The Net Zero Emissions (NZE) scenario (IEA 2023h) developed by the IEA isused as the reference scenario to define the goals. The goals outlined by the NZE scenario for thebuilding sector are aligned with the transition of the global energy sector to achieve net-zero CO2emissions by 2050. Moreover, this scenario is consistent with limiting the global temperature rise
to 1.5 °C, in line with emissions reductions assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC).
The final goal for the GBCT remains to be the decarbonisation of the building sector by 2050.
However, the individual goals for the different indicators were adjusted according to the NZE andinternal analyses. The goals for all the indicators, including 2030 milestones, are summarized inTable 4 GBCT’s indicators goals. The goals and methodology for each indicator are described in
the following subsection.

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Table 4

GBCT’s indicators goals

INDICATOR

2030 milestone

2050 final goal

4.4

0

Building sector energy unit intensity (kWh/m²)

96.2

55.8

Renewable share in final energy demand in buildings (%)

18.1

25.0

Cumulative energy efficiency investment in buildings (US$bn)

5,586.2

28,374.8

Green building certification (cumulative growth)

33.9

96.5

NDC considering buildings extensively (% aggregated)

75

100

Building codes ZEB-aligned (% aggregated)

75

100

EMISSIONS
Buildings sector energy related emissions (GtCO2/year)
IMPACTACTION

Adjustments to indicators
In this third edition of the GBCT, the goals forthe buildings sector energy related emissions,energy unit intensity, and renewable share in
final energy demand in buildings were modified
to correspond to the values established by
the NZE. The NZE scenario considers that all
CO2 emissions (direct and indirect) from theoperation of buildings need to reduce fromthe current levels to reach 4.4 GtCO2/year by2030 and 0 GtCO2/year by 2050 (IEA 2023i).
The NZE scenario considers that the energy
consumed per square meter in buildings needs
to reduce to 96.2 kWh/m² by 2030, around35 per cent less than in 2022 (IEA 2023i). The
NZE scenario considers that energy intensityof the buildings sector should be 55.8 kWh/Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

m² by 2050 (IEA 2021a). Moreover, the energy
supply of the building sector should transformto progressively shift from fossil fuels to otherenergy sources, considering the increaseof electrification and aiming at the share of
renewable energy in the building sector (in the
demand side) to increasing to 18.1 per centby 2030 (IEA 2023j), and reaching 25 per centby 2050 (IEA 2021b). It is important to noticethat the scenario considers that the remaining
supply for energy in buildings will be covered by
2 per cent from fossil technologies and around73 per cent by the electricity sector, which is
expected to increase its share of renewableenergies from 29 per cent in 2020 to nearly 70
per cent in 2050 (IEA 2021c).

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |97

For the energy efficiency investments inbuildings indicator, the methodology and thegoal were modified. The approach was shiftedfrom employing annual investments to utilising
cumulative investments beginning in 2015. Thischange enables to highlight the cumulative
shortfall in investments that have accrued overtime, with the shortfall defined as the difference
between the actual annual investments madeand the annual investments required to stayon track towards achieving climate neutrality.
The goal for this indicator was then establishedbased on the NZE scenario, which considers
that the investments in energy efficiency
should be US$537.7 billion annually by 2030
(IEA 2023i). This value was used as a reference
to calculate the cumulative goal as follows:
It was considered that the investments growlinearly from the starting point in 2015 until
reaching US$537.7 billion in 2030, then the
cumulative path was calculated by summingup the investments every year to obtain the
cumulated 2030 milestone, US$5,586.2 billion.
For the goal value in 2050, it was consideredthat the annual investments from 2030 to 2050
follow the same ratio than the investmentsfrom 2015 to 2030 but adjusted for 20 years(2030-2050). Then the cumulative goal for2050 was calculated by summing up theinvestments every year, obtaining US$28,374.8
billion. The impact of using cumulative insteadof annual investments in the GBCT remains
relatively modest for the years spanning2015 to 2022. However, in the future, thecumulative unfulfilled investments will accrue
and widen the gap on the path toward climate
neutrality unless these missed investments are
addressed and made up for.
For the cumulative growth of green building
certification indicator, the goal was defined
based on the growth of the global building
floor area. The building floor area is expected
to grow (starting in 2015) 34 per cent until
2030, and 97 per cent until 2050 (IEA 2022b).
Hence, it is considered that the indicator forthe cumulative growth of building certifications
should reach 33.9 points by 2023, and 96.5
points by 2050.

98| UNEP |Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

For the indicator monitoring the number ofcountries with NDCs considering the building
sector in their efforts, the methodology
and goal were adjusted. To render theassessment of each country’s building stock
decarbonisation efforts more precise andfocus on relevant aspects, the approach shiftedfrom simply counting the number of NDCs
mentioning Buildings to counting the number
of NDCs that include a detailed strategy
addressing the building sector. Moreover, it wasalso considered that advanced economies may
reach net-zero emissions in advance of others,
i.e. it was considered that by 2030 all the G20
members and 50 per cent of the remaining
countries should include a detailed strategy forthe building sector within their NDCs; by 2050,
it is considered that all countries have defined
an NDC including a detailed strategy for thebuilding sector.
For the indicator monitoring the countries
with established building energy codes, themethodology and goal were also adjusted.
Similarly, to the NDCs indicator, a morethorough analysis of the existing building
energy codes was pursued. The methodology
shifted from simply counting the number ofcountries with an established building energy
code to counting the number of building
energy codes aligned with ZEB principles. The
purpose of this change is to reflect the needfor countries to consider a life cycle oriented
approach for the construction and renovationof buildings. The new approach also aims
at reflecting the fact that by 2030 all newbuildings are expected to be zero emissions
in the NZE scenario. It was also consideredthat advanced economies may reach netzero emissions earlier than others, i.e. it wasconsidered that by 2030 all G20 members
and 50 per cent of the remaining countries
should have building energy codes aligned with
ZEB principles; by 2050, all countries shouldhave building energy codes aligned with ZEB
principles.
The adjustments previously described wereincorporated into the GBCT. The methodology
for the final composite index remains the same.
The observations, results and analysis for thecomposite index and the individual indicators
are presented in Chapter 5: Global Buildings
Climate Tracker and Chapter 6: Buildings
climate policy gap review.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC)

Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) | UNEP |99

This publication is supported by the Environment Fund - UNEP’s core financial fund. The Fund is used to provide scientific evidence on
the state of the global environment, identify emerging environmental issues and innovative solutions, raise awareness and advocacy,
bring together stakeholders to agree on action, and for building capacity of partners. Core funding gives UNEP the strength and flexibility
to implement the programme of work (in support of the 2030 Agenda) as approved by its Member States, and to strategically respond to
emerging challenges. UNEP is grateful to all the Member States that contribute to the Environment Fund.
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