Mobilizing ambitions to loop decarbonization in the built environment

10:30 – 11:30 (EET)

Limiting warming to around 1.5C requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest and be reduced by 43% by 2030. Representing nearly 40% of global energy-related emissions and 50% of extracted materials, decarbonising the built environment can rapidly accelerate climate action. By 2060 the world’s building stock will double and almost 70% of the global population is projected to live in urban areas. With a focus on ‘whole-life carbon mitigation’, the sector’s leading actors are mobilising behind the net-zero buildings commitment: By 2030, 100% of new buildings must be net-zero carbon ready in operation and embodied carbon must be reduced by at least 40%, and by 2050, all new and existing assets must be net zero across the whole life cycle. Despite this, according to the World Green Business Council, under $3 of every $100 spent on new construction goes to efficient buildings, and most countries do not include full building decarbonisation targets as part of their NDCs, and certain areas such as building materials are under-addressed.

The aim is to stage a conversation about how ambitious actors in the buildings sector are advancing on their net-zero buildings commitments; what priority actions they must take together across the buildings value-chain to generate co-benefits across their Scope 3 commitments; and how business leaders and policy makers can come together to co-create ambitions loops that can deliver tipping points for a thriving buildings sector in a net-zero economy.