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Global Status Report 2016

Published by UNEP

The Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GABC) was launched at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) Buildings Day in Paris on the 3rd of December 2016. It was initiated by France and the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) to bring together the building and construction industry, countries and stakeholders to raise awareness and facilitate the global transition towards for low-emission, energy-efficient buildings.

With its creation, GABC members acknowledged that the buildings and construction sector can contribute significantly to achieving climate goals and the common objective of limiting global warming to well-below 2 Celsius (2°C).

Indeed, the GABC aims at supporting and accelerating the implementation of the NDCs, and thus facilitate the implementation of the Paris Agreement for the buildings and construction sector in terms of energy efficiency gains, growth of renewable energy and GHG emissions reduction. Moreover, the GABC aims at dramatically reducing the GHG emissions of the global building stock by increasing the share of eco-friendly buildings, whether new or renovated.

Today, the GABC gathers together 23 countries and 64 non-state organisations (sub-national, non-governmental organisations and private sector) from all over the world and is intended to increase the pace and scale of actions through communication, collaboration and implementation.

GABC activities are organised around different working groups contributing to the transition towards low-GHG and resilient real estate: Education and Awareness; Public Policies; Market Transformation; Finance; and Measurements, Indicators and Accountability. These working groups have been established during the inaugural meeting and seminar of the GABC, held in Paris on the 18th and 19th of April 2016.

During the inaugural meeting in Paris, GABC members agreed on the need for two ad-hoc frameworks: a Global Roadmap for the transition towards low-emission and resilient real estate and this Global Status Report, along with a Building and Climate Yearbook that will be produced on an annual basis hereafter.

This is the first draft of the Global Status Report, which will track each year the progress made in the transition towards low-emission and resilient real estate. The next complete edition will be issued on November 2017.

Download the report here.