Last week, a series of events in Bogotá, Colombia and Sonora, Mexico signalled the kick-off the WorldGBC’s Cities Climate Action project in the Americas supported by the Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA).

The events follow a $600,000 award win for WorldGBC’s Americas Regional Network towards transitioning buildings at scale to save energy and prepare cities for a net zero future, via a partnership with P4G (Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030). Thanks to P4G’s support for WorldGBC’s Cities Climate Action project, 2019 and 2020 will witness more public and private sector action to advance energy efficiency in buildings across the region than ever before.

On Monday this week, Bogotá launched the Phase II of the BEA for National and Sub-national engagement, with the support of the Ministry of housing, at a kick-off event attended by +50 actors from the construction industry.

At the event, the Advisor for the Mayor of Bogotá, Juan Camilo Gonzales, presented the progress of Phase I of the BEA Bogotá Program, and the plans for the Implementation Protocol of Res.549 / 15 in Bogotá. The document contains a clear and precise path for compliance with the mandatory water and energy savings for 10 typologies of the 5 uses regulated by the resolution. With this, the city expects that the new buildings will reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 32%, to impact 2.7 million new homes, and those new homes will see their utilities reduced by 25%.

Also, the goals for phase 2 of the BEA program in Bogota were presented, in which a Monitoring, Reporting and Verification system will be designed for the implementation of the Bogotá Protocol and the reduction of GHG emissions will be estimated for compliance with the savings of water and energy.

On Tuesday, the State of Sonora in Mexico held their kick-off event launching the BEA program, with the special participation of SUMe (Mexico GBC). The implementation of Energy Efficiency measures in buildings, can reduce between 25 and 50% the levels of carbon production and achieve the goals acquired by the State, with its adhesion to the Under2 Coalition, to reduce its emissions by 80% by the year 2050.

Luis Carlos Romo, explained that these actions are part of the Green Growth Strategy, implemented by Governor Claudia Pavlovich, whose ultimate goal is to improve the quality of life and resilience of Sonorans to climate change, which is why, in October 2018, with the support of the World Resources Insitute, Sonora formally joined the BEA program.

These two announcements emphasize once again the high relevance and impact of the BEA program. WorldGBC is excited to facilitate these and many more cities learning from one another and gaining access to private sector solutions and support in meeting their targets as we scale this work across the region.

To find about more about WorldGBC’s partnership with P4G for the Americas Regional Network, click here.