For two days, on 7 and 8 March, the French capital gathered around 800 worldwide experts on buildings, construction and climate matters next to ministries of EU Member States and world nations in the first ever Buildings & Climate Global Forum, co-organised by the French Ministry of Environmental Transition and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with the support of the Global Alliance for Climate and Buildings. EBC did not miss the opportunity and travelled to the Paris to discuss current and future trends and trajectories for the construction sector, a pillar in all continents.
On day 1, in a plenary session lead by the host French Minister for the Environmental transition Christophe Béchu, the worldwide importance of the construction sector was described as it represents 7% of total employment, 13% of the world’s GDP, and 50% of all added value. Then the Buildings Performance Institute Europe made the statistical case that the world and the EU are not on track for decarbonised buildings.
Engaging in sessions on circularity and energy consumption in the built environment, but also on energy efficient buildings and the role of public procurement for decarbonising them, the importance of articulating solutions at the local level was in all exchanges. The underlying challenge of skills and capacity building and the need to trigger public and private financing were continuous topics, as construction remains a human-powered sector and requires investment capacity.
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On day 2, during Women Rights International day, the stakeholders’ plenary session (energy, finance, materials, methods and construction, and urbanisation and skills) held the day before, followed by a fire-starter exchange with MEP Ciaran Cuffe (Greens, Ireland), leading the revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive in the European Parliament, with a highly-expected plenary debate on Monday 11 March and subsequent vote the day after.
Full room for the session on renovation, where Dutch, Lithuanian and Czech governments insisted on the need to find solutions to labour shortages in construction, including industrialisation. The importance of making use of all technologies that can contribute to the decarbonisation of buildings, the need for easy and standardised energy performance tracking systems, as well as the setup of accessible financial schemes for massive investments in energy efficient solutions and methods were among the main points of discussion.
The event also celebrated the revitalised “Declaration de Chaillot” under the lead of French Minister for Housing Guillaume Kasbarian, gathering individual and collective commitments and engagements of of 70 present governments and state actors, with the support of stakeholders from across the building and construction value chains. At the same time, the Governments of France and Morocco, together with the UNEP launched its Building Breakthrough initiative, with 27 countries pledging to join forces to accelerate the transformation of the buildings sector towards a decarbonized building sector and affordable, accessible, and attractive clean technologies and sustainable solutions in all regions by 2030.
Full room for the session on renovation, where Dutch, Lithuanian and Czech governments insisted on the need to find solutions to labour shortages in construction, including industrialisation. The importance of making use of all technologies that can contribute to the decarbonisation of buildings, the need for easy and standardised energy performance tracking systems, as well as the setup of accessible financial schemes for massive investments in energy efficient solutions and methods were among the main points of discussion.
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High-level dialogues bringing together Ministries and representatives from business, European and international organisations and civil society discussed ten themes considered major for the green transition of buildings in the last phase of the event: renovation, new building, housing, passive design, heating and cooling, adaptation and resilience, roadmaps and National decarbonisation plans, finance and acceptability, partnerships and value chain, regulation, and international cooperation. These concluding talks highlighted the main findings of the event for further achievements in the sector’s transition, with the next COP30 in Belem, Brazil in November 2025 in all minds.
EBC salutes the ambition to collectively take stock of the state of play in the buildings sector on its road towards more sustainability, reflecting the importance of the construction sector in the European union and mirroring a request of a yearly high-level European Built Environment summit by the Construction 2050 Alliance.
 EBC delegation: President Philip van Nieuwenhuizen and Secretary General Fernando Sigchos Jiménez | For more information on the Buildings & Climate Global Forum, click here |