Deeper collaboration for stronger implementation

GBPN participated in the 2025 Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction Annual Assembly themed “Building for a Resilient Future” in Dresden, Germany. Trust, Action and Deep Collaboration stood out as key highlights at the Annual Assembly.

Last month, GBPN joined over 150 global changemakers from governments, the private sector, academic, and civil society in Dresden, Germany, for the 2025 Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC) Annual Assembly. For GBPN, it was an opportunity to deepen and expand our partnerships and exchange best practices at a global level. 

Dr Peter Graham, Executive Director, highlighted that the assembly spotlighted an incredible depth and breadth of solutions from around the world. 

“Platforms like the Global ABC Assembly make the movement visible to itself and strengthen powerful coalitions that can drive change,” Dr Graham said.

“The Assembly was an exciting opportunity to learn and also offer our expertise to the thematic Hubs and Action Groups, to show how step-changes can be created through a bottom-up policy reform approach.”

The Global ABC Assembly brought together a community of practice that is aligned in delivering solutions to meet targets and create a resilient and sustainable built environment for all.

Bridging the intention-action gap

In 2023, the Buildings Breakthrough initiative was launched to make near-zero emission and climate-resilient buildings the new normal by 2030. GBPN joined the Breakthrough as a supporting initiative in 2024. But as the road to 2030 gets shorter, it’s no longer enough to have policies, as evident from the session on the Global Status Report. We need action plans, finance, and capacity to deliver on promises.

Mugure Njendu, Africa Programs Lead at GBPN spoke on GBPN’s role in supporting hands-on implementation on the Session on ‘COP 30, What to Expect for and by the Built Environment’. 

“Through our work across Kenya, Indonesia, and India, we have shown that solutions developed for the local context using local expertise are implementable, ambitious, scalable,” Ms Njendu said.

“These solutions are validated and benchmarked globally. Whether it’s developing locally-specific national decarbonization roadmaps, helping align finance with local building regulations, or designing affordable housing to be future climate-ready, we’re focused on bridging the ‘intention-action’ gap.” 

Growing Global Networks of Trust

Radical collaboration emerged as a non-negotiable factor at the Annual Assembly. The challenges facing the built environment–whether embodied carbon, affordable housing, and heat stress–can’t be solved by any one actor or sector. 

Kavya Gopal, Networks Manager, GBPN shared that a key takeaway from the assembly was seeing the tangible work delivered by multistakeholder initiatives across the Buildings Breakthrough and Action Hubs. 

“We’re seeing what’s possible when a network of skilled and committed people work together,” Ms Gopal said. 

“At GBPN, we’re leaning into this spirit by linking together a network of local champions, changemakers, and partners to show that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We can adapt,tailor and scale best practices to implement solutions now.”

Looking to COP 30 and beyond

As GBPN prepares for COP30 in Brazil, one thing is clear: the spotlight on policy implementation needs to get stronger. One of the key themes at the Assembly panels was the implementation of financing and how public regulations need to be leveraged to unlock private financing. Another key theme was how affordable housing and infrastructure can improve people’s lives, especially in the global south.

“This Assembly reminded us that we are in this together. Continued deep collaboration across our networks is essential to accelerate implementation. There’s a global community of people working towards demystifying change in what seems like a complex sector. The task at hand now is to stay connected and keep building better together,” Ms. Gopal said.

GBPN left Dresden more connected and more committed to supporting governments, the private sector, and practitioners to translate their ambition into action.