G7 Green Building Councils urge Ministers to bring buildings to the top of climate solution agenda

Ahead of this weekend’s G7 Ministers’ Meeting on Climate, Energy and Environment in Turin, Italy — the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC), alongside Green Building Councils (GBCs) representing G7 countries — have signed an open letter to the Climate Ministers stressing the importance of buildings as a solution to deliver a decarbonised, resilient, and equitable future.

As the largest contributing sector to carbon emissions, we have an opportunity to exploit existing climate solutions from the built environment to deliver carbon-neutral, circular, healthy and safe buildings — but to meet the potential of the sector, first we need heightened political ambition from G7 leaders.

Our open letter highlights that the deep green transformation of the sector requires less than 0.03% of global GDP and has the potential to lift 2.8 billion people out of energy poverty, reduce carbon emissions by 37%, and create US$1.5 trillion of investment opportunities in emerging markets.

As GBCs working at the nexus of climate and buildings across the G7, the letter’s signatories therefore represent organisations who are already collaborating to accelerate action, and drive demand for a systemic transformation of the building sector to deliver on the Paris Agreement goals.

“As climate leaders convene in Turin, Italy this week, we remind them of the progress achieved this year by governments who are taking the first steps of political leadership through the launch of the Buildings Breakthrough and the Declaration De Chaillot. This weekend, we hope that the G7 leaders can advance this leadership and be assured of the collective power of the GBC network to turn this ambition into actionable solutions.”

Audrey Nugent, Global Advocacy & Campaigns Director, WorldGBC.

Read the open letter here.