The buildings sector must halve emissions by 2030, and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Global emissions may have peaked in 2024, according to a recent analysis by Bloomberg NEF and Climate Analytics. But there’s no time to rest yet. For the first time, the global average temperature has exceeded the 1.5°C threshold for an entire year in 2024, marking a significant moment in climate change history. This breach was confirmed by the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service in January 2025, indicating that the world has experienced a year-long period of temperatures above this critical limit.
Why the building sector?
The building and construction sector is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, contributing to 21% of total emissions. In 2022, 34 percent of global energy demand and 37 percent of energy and process-related carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions came from buildings. Annual emissions from the buildings sector have risen modestly from 9.7 GtCO2 to 9.8 GtCO2 in 2024, with growth slowing from 2% to 1% annually.1
Stronger building codes, and innovation in building materials, design and construction have helped stabilize the rate of emissions, but transformative action is still needed to halve emissions by 2030 and achieve zero emissions by 2050.
Decarbonizing the buildings sector does not just help to reduce emissions, it can profoundly impact health, markets and a just transition in many ways.
What does progress look like?
Our programs in Indonesia and India are on track to avoid 450MtCO2 and 137MtCO2 respectively by 2030. Our current and new programs will contribute to avoiding around 7GtCO2/yr by 2030 by decarbonizing the built environment in our key focus areas – Southeast Asia, India, China and Africa. These regions are expanding their building footprint faster than at any time in history, and contribute more than 60% of global buildings sector emissions. Our focus is on ensuring these rapidly growing regions have the right policies to achieve healthy zero emissions buildings that are accessible to all people. We also continue to partner with our peers in the US and EU who are working on decarbonizing existing buildings which will help avoid 13GtCO2/yr by 2050.
Our programs in the focus regions ensure that five key climate policies are put in place 2:
Our work on reducing emissions from buildings is critical because most of the progress to date has been driven by more renewables in energy supply. But to accelerate the pace of decarbonization we have to tackle energy demand. To keep on track to achieve net-zero emission goals, we must accelerate implementation, knowledge sharing and innovation, and strengthen collaboration between practitioners in different parts of the world.
Our bottom up approach and unique way of engaging with experts have proven to be effective, scalable and transferable – delivering results across Indonesia, and translating easily to the Indian context and to China with similar impact. We are now strongly positioned to build on our early successes. To achieve the necessary impact, we will deepen our presence in Indonesia and India, expand our programs to China and Africa, and influence policy reform globally by strengthening our partnerships in the EU and USA. By 2030 we will have built a global network of local solutions-centres working to ensure the buildings sector is emissions free by 2050.
Stepping on the accelerator
Our work in our focus regions has shown that governments are willing to engage with solutions that are :
- Developed for the local context using local expertise.
- Implementable, ambitious and scalable
- Validated and benchmarked globally
These solutions are based on our bottom-up engagement strategy and our place as ‘the honest broker’, facilitating collaborative working relationships and effective delivery of practical policy solutions tailored to the local context.
We will continue to deepen our engagement in Indonesia to implement and extend national policies and in India to coordinate policy action. We will also expand policy support programs in China, Africa and Southeast Asia. These are the regions with exponential growth in building footprint and where our primary focus will be.
Another key area of focus will be to grow and strengthen our network of experts and partners. The GBPN Network will continue to grow geographically as well as across sectors, to share best practices to enable solutions at speed and scale.
We will also continue to contribute to initiatives like the Buildings Breakthrough Agenda and the Declaration de Chaillot at the global level.
Decarbonizing the building sector is not just necessary—it’s possible. In the past five years, the sector’s critical role in achieving the Paris Agreement and sustainable development goals has gained mainstream acceptance. The number of countries including building sector actions in their NDCs has grown from 136 in 2018 to 161 by the end of 2023, and average energy intensity in buildings has improved by around 3% since 2012 3. At COP28, 70 countries joined the Buildings Breakthrough Agenda, committing to mainstream zero-carbon ready and resilient buildings by 2030.
With global momentum, policy action, and technological advances accelerating, a zero-emission future for buildings is well within reach. We need to show up and build on the progress already achieved.
1 UNEP (2023) Global Status Report on Buildings and Construction 20232 Five key climate policies
Climate Proof Building Codes – Climate Proof Building codes ensure that when buildings are designed, constructed and renovated, they don’t contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, and they are resilient and adaptable to current and future climate extremes. To drive down greenhouse gas emissions from the buildings sector, codes must be revised to ensure buildings are designed to be energy efficient, contribute zero direct and indirect emissions per year of operation, and zero new embodied emissions over their lifespan through low-emissions resource efficient construction and life-cycle design.
Emissions Rating & Disclosure – Rating and disclosure policies require building owners to measure and disclose energy consumption and related GHG emissions from building operations. Rating and disclosure policies include mandating the display of emissions and energy performance labels on buildings, and in advertising for rental and purchasing. Policy packages that include both mandatory building energy efficiency regulations and rating and disclosure policies have been shown to be most effective in reducing building energy demand and associated emissions over time.
Material Emissions Labelling – Material environmental performance or sustainability certification and labelling identifies the environmental impacts associated with the extraction, production and use of building materials and products. This is increasingly including specifically disclosing embodied greenhouse gas emissions. This information is important for enabling designers and specifiers of building works and maintenance to avoid high-emissions materials. They also provide demand-side drivers that support market reforms for industrial decarbonisation efforts.
Indoor Environmental Quality Standards – IIEQ standards can be used to ensure buildings offer low-cost and low-emissions cooling and heating, and safeguard health and well-being – especially in extreme weather events. Indoor environmental quality standards safe-guard healthy indoor air quality, thermal comfort, appropriate acoustics and lighting – including access to natural ventilation, daylight and sanitation. Poor quality indoor environments can lead to serious health impacts and drive energy demand for air-conditioning and/or heating – which in turn drives increasing energy-related GHG emissions
Finance & Fiscal Policies – Finance and Fiscal policy measures provide financial incentives for investing in sustainable building. There are a wide range of policy measures including subsidies, rebates, grants, low-interest finance and tax-breaks that can be aligned to increase demand and drive market transformation.
3 UNEP (2023) Global Status Report on Buildings and Construction 2023
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Stay in touch with how we’re transforming the buildings sector
GBPN runs innovative building policy reform programs in key regions around the world that aim to tackle the climate emergency by decarbonising the buildings sector. Stay up to date with our newsletter.
Stay in touch with how we’re transforming the buildings sector
GBPN runs innovative building policy reform programs in key regions around the world that aim to tackle the climate emergency by decarbonising the buildings sector. Stay up to date with our newsletter.
