WorldGBC is now making this a reality through our Building the Transition Roadmaps programme.
WorldGBC is expanding our Building the Transition programme to accelerate national climate action roadmaps for buildings and construction across the Africa and Asia-Pacific regions.
Working through national coalitions led by Green Building Councils, this programme brings together stakeholders from the whole built environment value chain to develop — or support the implementation of — practical, science-based roadmaps that align ambition with delivery and help unlock the conditions to deliver efficiency, energy security, resilience and climate action at scale.
This expansion builds on the impact of national roadmaps already being delivered through our #BuildingLife initiative in Europe, and is strengthened by the GlobalABC’s Climate Action Roadmaps for Buildings and Construction toolkit, as well as WorldGBC’s own Zero Carbon and Climate Resilience Readiness Framework.
Roadmaps are national action plans that set out short, medium and long-term actions for all key stakeholders to cut energy and emissions, and increase circularity and resilience in the built environment.
Each roadmap will be:
Roadmaps are proven pathways that deliver real-world progress in homes and neighbourhoods worldwide, as well as the health and economic benefits of sustainable, resilient buildings.
They help shift action in the built environment from high-level goals to tangible progress, aligning policy advocacy and industry action to ensure progress happens faster and at scale. This approach catalyses a self-reinforcing ambition loop in which bold government policies, financial investment and private sector and civil society leadership influence each other and make lasting change possible.
Formally recognised by the COP30 Presidency, the UNFCCC and the Climate High-Level Champions as a Plan to Accelerate Solutions (PAS), roadmaps are delivering on the COP30 Action Agenda.
Roadmaps are intended for use by every part of the built environment ecosystem, bringing together stakeholders from across industry, finance, civil society, governments, cities, UN country teams and national Green Building Councils.
Whoever you are in the built environment value chain, roadmaps can help you identify what climate actions to prioritise, how to work with your supply chain or what policies to advocate and vote for.
WorldGBC’s roadmaps are based on a methodology developed by the UN-hosted GlobalABC, which has published a comprehensive toolkit to support the roadmap development process.
This methodology and guidance are complemented by WorldGBC’s Zero Carbon and Climate Resilience Readiness Framework, a resource developed by our regional Green Building Council networks to map stakeholders, opportunities and challenges at a national level. The Readiness Framework provides an ideal starting point from which to build out a full roadmap. It helps lay out the foundations in terms of who to engage and what to prioritise when developing detailed national recommendations for the sector.
As the programme moves forward, WorldGBC will also develop a carbon budget model later this year to support those creating roadmaps. This model will enable roadmap development teams to ensure actions and timelines set out in national roadmaps are consistent with national climate targets and goals of the Paris Agreement.
Guidance developed by UNEP, with support and input from the WorldGBC network, sets out a seven-step process that development teams can follow:
Step 1. Mobilisation: Mobilising the team and leadership necessary to develop the roadmap.
Step 2. Stakeholder engagement: Mapping and engaging with relevant buildings and construction sector stakeholders in the country from the public and private sectors, academia and research institutions, as well as relevant donors and financing entities to support the elaboration and future implementation of the roadmap.
Step 3. Baseline assessment: Understanding the current status of the buildings and construction sector in the country or region in terms of emissions, building stocks and climate resilience as well as the enabling environment such as policy, standards and financing.
Step 4. Identification of challenges and opportunities: Identifying information gaps, challenges and opportunities per action area. WorldGBC’s Readiness Framework provides a ready tool to conduct the analysis for this stage of the process.
Step 5. Prioritisation of domains of change: Identifying the priority areas for intervention and agreeing with the authorities on the final goals and targets that the roadmap would help to achieve.
Step 6. Action development: Identifying and prioritising the actions, including defining the timeline and the entities responsible for implementation.
Step 7. Setup for implementation and monitoring: Setting the next steps towards the implementation of the roadmap and the monitoring mechanism. This can involve convening across different stakeholder groups to coordinate actions and collaboration, as well as developing accountability mechanisms to track and communicate progress. In some cases, it may involve more focused interventions that address specific strategic bottlenecks identified in the roadmaps, such as increasing industry skills and capacity in the TopClever project.
In Europe, climate action roadmaps are already delivering clear results through our #BuildingLife initiative.
Since launching in 2022, our EU Policy Whole Life Carbon Roadmap has helped set direction in the region and is recognised as a reference document by the European Commission. The 2024/25 update to Europe’s key buildings legislation, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), now mandates that all Member States develop a national roadmap for the sector by 2027. The initiative has also expanded the conversation around whole life carbon (WLC), with all participating countries now engaging in discussions to incorporate WLC measures into national policies and regulations.
With over 1,550 stakeholders engaged across industry, #BuildingLife is driving systemic change through roadmaps, advocating for ambitious policies and fostering industry and financial sector collaboration to achieve a fully decarbonised built environment in Europe in 2050.
The new cohort developing and implementing roadmaps will include Green Building Councils in our Africa and Asia-Pacific Regional Networks from:
Future work is also being scoped with partners in China and India.
To find out if a climate action roadmap for the built environment exists or is planned in your country and how you can support it, get in touch with your national Green Building Council today.