The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has convened 41 stakeholder groups and businesses representing over 5,000 built environment organisations to unite in voicing support for the European Commission’s development of a Whole Life Carbon (WLC) Roadmap for the building sector.
In an open letter issued today (21 September) to several Directorate Generals in the European Commission, the coalition is calling for an EU Roadmap which takes a holistic approach to tackling WLC in the built environment, which accounts for around 41% of the EU’s total carbon emissions.
The letter also calls for a clear decarbonisation pathway to be outlined in the Roadmap, as well as clear policy interventions across products and building regulations, procurement and finance, and waste and circularity, as outlined in the EU Policy WLC Roadmap launched by WorldGBC in 2022.
The letter has been sent the week after an EU consultation on Whole Life Carbon took place, during which the building sector as well as members of the public were asked to rate a series of decarbonisation actions on effectiveness and feasibility.
Audrey Nugent, Director of Global Advocacy, WorldGBC, said:
“We have been calling on the European Commission to commit to addressing Whole Life Carbon in the built environment for a number of years, and are very pleased to see progress on this important topic through the development of this Commission Roadmap. To maximise the impact and success of the Roadmap, our coalition is recommending that it sets out a clear pathway to decarbonisation by 2050 with intermediary targets for the sector, alongside a solid framework of cross cutting policy interventions.”