Elevating the Built Environment at COP27

Originally published in Architect Magazine, February 2023

The juggernaut of COP27 is over, its miles of displays disassembled and its 35,000 delegates dispersed across the globe. Agreements were signed, commitments made, partnerships forged, and solutions shared.  Architecture 2030, along with many of our long-time partners -- American Institute of Architects, ASHRAE, the International Federation of Landscape Architects, Climate Heritage Network, the US Green Building Council, the International Code Council, the World Green Building Council and others – produced events, attended panels and workshops, and participated in agenda-setting discussions with legislators and UN officials.  

What did it all mean, particularly for those of us working long and hard on the task of decarbonizing the built environment?

Elevating the Built Environment

One key take-away: We have successfully elevated the importance of the built environment in meeting global climate goals. Leaders understand the outsize contribution buildings make to GHG emissions, and 158 of the 196 parties to the Paris Agreement now include buildings in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). “The built environment is a critical sector to achieve the needed transition to a resilient and zero emissions future,” noted Egypt’s COP27 High-Level Champion Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin. Washington Governor Jay Inslee put it bluntly: “Our ability to reshape our buildings is going to shape the future of our environment.”

A flurry of new buildings-focused initiatives were launched before and during COP27, including an ambitious Buildings Breakthrough sponsored by France, Morocco, and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction. The Sustainable Urban Resilience for the Next Generation (SURGe) initiative, sponsored by the COP27 Presidency, UN Habitat and ICLEI, aims to accelerate local climate action on buildings and urban infrastructure. Race to Zerocontinues to grow, with significant new commitments from the buildings sector.  The Buildings Pavilion was a lively hub of information and activity.  

Mixed Progress

Has this higher profile translated to meaningful progress? The findings of the most recent Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction were mixed. As buildings get more efficient, their energy use intensity (total energy divided by floor area) has steadily declined. We are decoupling global growth and carbon emissions.

The rapid pace of development is outpacing those gains, however, and urban growth is expected to accelerate over the next three decades, particularly in high-growth regions of the Global South. World Bank Regional Director Sameh Wahba suggests, for example, “The world will need 100,000 housing units per day between now and 2050 to catch up with the current need and accommodate new urbanization.” If we are going to continue to build at this pace, we must build better.

Opportunities for Progress

What does “better” look like? Discussions at COP suggest three important strategies: Reducing embodied carbon in hard-to-abate sectors, promoting circularity and re-use, and leaning into nature-based solutions.  

The global manufacture of steel and concrete, two essential building ingredients, account for over half of Industry’s direct energy-related CO2 emissions.  Dramatically reducing the embodied carbon in these materials is a focus of the Breakthrough Agenda, and early results shared in Sharm El-Sheikh were promising.  The First Movers Coalition reported significant uptake in advance purchase agreements for near-zero carbon cement and concrete, and signatories from Africa launched the African Net-Zero Concrete National Roadmap. 

Slowing consumption – reducing the materials we use and the number of new buildings we build – must be part of any meaningful decarbonization effort.  COP27 delegates learned about Architecture 2030’s Carbon Avoided Retrofit Estimator (CARE) Tool, which helps practitioners calculate the carbon savings of adaptive re-use vs. new builds, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Buildings Toolkit developed in partnership with Arup.  At Architecture 2030’s event, Planning, Design and Development in the Global South, urban planner Ghaith Tibi urged starting any project with the simple question, “Must we build?”

The role of nature in building climate resilience was a prominent COP27 theme, featured in new initiatives like the WorldGBC Guide to Climate Resilience and Adaptation in the Built Environment and the Sharm El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda.  But reducing the carbon pay-back period of landscape and infrastructure projects is also a powerful mitigation strategy.  Architecture 2030 Senior Fellow Pamela Conrad spoke with COP delegates about Climate Positive Design’s efforts to reduce global warming through the exterior built environment. 

We Are the Change

COP27 offered a clear picture of the nature and scale of the challenges we face. “It is now more critical than ever that businesses, sub-national governments and civil society step up their actions,” noted Roland Hunziker, Built Environment Director at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. The responsibility for change is on us, the practitioners, businesses, and institutions that design, deliver, and manage our built environment.  

LISA RICHMOND is a Senior Fellow with Architecture 2030.  She led Architecture 2030’s delegation to COP27. As Executive Director of the American Institute of Architects Seattle for 15 years, Lisa helped lead the association’s national agenda on climate change mitigation and adaptation, promoting climate action and education in AIA chapters across the US.  She is a Harvard Loeb Fellow and a trained Climate Reality Leader and mentor.