As a deal was finally reached following the conclusion of COP29, we unpack the summit’s successes and areas for further development, and how we can continue to mobilise the built environment community on the road to COP30 in Belém, Brazil.
With a central focus on climate finance, COP29 brought together nearly 200 countries in Baku, Azerbaijan. This year’s conference faced many challenges, but it remains a crucial platform to accelerate progress and, in a time of geopolitical turbulence, forming a deal is an important outcome.
The headline announcement from the Conference was the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG), which saw an agreement to triple finance to developing countries, from the previous goal of USD 100 billion annually, to USD 300 billion annually by 2035. Countries also agreed to secure efforts to work together to scale up finance, from public and private sources, to USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035.
Whilst this deal remains insufficient to meet the needs of developing countries, it marks a step forward in recognising the scale of what’s needed, and creates a foundation on which to build. Now, the broader finance ecosystem must mobilise to deliver at the speed and scale required.
A notable development for the built environment community is that UNFCCC negotiations have, for the first time, recognised the importance of our sector in the official text. This can be found in the Sharm el-Sheikh mitigation ambition and implementation work programme which ‘notes’ key findings for the built environment including reducing operational emissions, designing building envelopes for energy efficiency, and reducing embodied emissions. The findings also include electrification and switching to low-emission technologies, and acknowledge the importance of international collaboration including finance, knowledge transfer and capacity building.
The programme recognises the need to tailor solutions to national and local circumstances, stating that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach – an ethos which is very much reflected in the work of the World Green Building Council and the network of national Green Building Councils (GBCs), as demonstrated in our presentation to the global dialogues on cities, delivered by WorldGBC Sustainable Finance Lead, Julie Emmrich, earlier this year.
At this year’s COP, WorldGBC and our global network have been calling on governments to #BeBoldOnBuildings in their updated national climate action plans (NDCs), which are due in February 2025 under the Paris Agreement. At the High Level Ministerial roundtable, which WorldGBC attended, Ministers from several countries demonstrated their commitment to deliver ambitious, sector-specific NDCs that are backed by policy and investment plans.
To support the evaluation and strengthening of national-level policy, WorldGBC unveiled our NDC Scorecard for Sustainable Buildings project in the Buildings and Cooling Pavillion in the Blue Zone. It is crucial that those responsible for the implementation of climate plans are involved in the development of this tool and, following the session, many country representatives and international organisations were enthusiastic to be involved in its development alongside the GBC network.
The negotiations also reaffirmed The UAE Consensus that the next round of NDCs should have economy-wide emission reduction targets covering all greenhouse gases, sectors and categories, and align with limiting warming to 1.5°C.
The ICBC (Intergovernmental Council on Buildings and Climate) was officially formalised during a High-Level Roundtable, with Ministers and high-level representatives from Azerbaijan, Brazil, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Lithuania, Tanzania, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
The ICBC will facilitate the implementation and review progress of the Declaration de Chaillot by enabling international cooperation and enhancing policy action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement. The ICBC’s initial leadership sees France as Chair, and Kenya and Brazil as Vice-Chairs, coordinated by the GlobalABC.
The Breakthrough Agenda launched the ‘Baku’ Priority International Actions across a range of sectors, including buildings, to accelerate progress on climate change. Governments from 61 supporting countries, representing 80% of global emissions, agreed the actions to help coordinate worldwide efforts to make clean technologies and sustainable practices more accessible.
WorldGBC is co-leading on Priority Action B1 of the Buildings Breakthrough. To drive this forward, we will be engaging with the global network of GBCs, key international organisations and countries to facilitate cross-border collaboration and consensus on the definitions and principles for near zero emission and resilient buildings ahead of COP30.
The Multisectoral Actions Pathway (MAP) Declaration for Resilient and Healthy Cities, was also launched. The Declaration seeks to enhance multisectoral cooperation to address climate challenges in cities, create coherence in urban climate efforts and catalyse urban climate finance.
As the Conference has demonstrated, the scale and complexity of the challenges that need to be addressed, are too big for any one organisation or country to tackle on their own. Collaboration – cross-border and cross-sector – is essential to drive the pace and level of change required.
WorldGBC was delighted to announce its participation in two new collaborations. We have begun a new era of our partnership with the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction with the signing of an MoU. This partnership will see both our organisations leveraging the unique strength of our respective networks to deliver on shared priorities, including advocacy, policy development and capacity-building.
We also became the latest organisation to join Mission 2025 – a wide coalition calling on leaders to agree a high ambition NCQG in COP29 and publish sector-specific NDCs which are 1.5°C aligned. This also included a coordinated call to the leaders at the G20 Summit to ‘move money’ and ‘publish the plans’.
We came to COP29 with a clear call to governments and industry to be bold on buildings. We cannot achieve 1.5°C without accelerating action on the built environment.
While the overall pace remains too slow, COP29 has unlocked critical progress from governments and we’ve seen that real economy leaders are ready to seize the economic opportunity of the transition and take action.
Developments specifically targeting the built environment, such as the ICBC and the mitigation ambition and implementation work programme have the potential to create a renewed focus on implementing buildings policy. Our network stands ready to work with governments and industry to ensure this is both ambitious and equitable.
As we leave this year’s COP behind, preparations begin for the next summit in Brazil 2025 so we can build on the progress we’ve so far achieved, and keep driving momentum behind key actions:
We invite you to work with us to be bold on buildings. Together we can drive local action and create the global momentum necessary for all people and our planet to thrive.
