Dear Colleagues,

Our community has known for decades that buildings represent one of the most significant opportunities to address climate change. We influence the industries that make our materials, the  amount and type of energy needed to power our grid and the buildings it serves, and the resilience necessary to withstand the changing environment around us. We work on the demand side of the equation. We’re pragmatic and we get our hands dirty.

Buildings haven’t always played a prime role in global climate negotiations, but thanks to advocates and practitioners in our community who show up year after year, buildings have risen to ministerial level negotiations at the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) on Climate Change. COP30 featured the first ever Intergovernmental Council for Buildings and Climate (ICBC), Ministerial Meeting, with progress on numerous fronts including timber construction, heritage buildings, and adaptation. The confluence of negotiators, environmental organizations, and practitioners has been key to moving policy and strategy from dialogue to implementation. COP30 was dubbed ‘the implementation COP’ because of a shared understanding that we have sufficiently demonstrated the strategies and technologies needed to address climate change. The next step is scaling up implementation and finance.

As a community we need to not just keep showing up, but ramp up our engagement – at the UNEP Sustainable Buildings and Construction Summit in Lausanne this April (the second global climate event dedicated to the built environment), and COP31 in Antalya this November. Our experience and voices are essential.