Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

Context

The Global Status Report is the sector’s annual stocktake: where emissions from buildings and construction stand, and whether anything is moving. It is produced under the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, convened by UNEP.

Objectives

We advise on the embodied carbon side - the emissions from making and moving materials and from construction itself, as distinct from the energy a building uses once occupied.

• Method and data. What can honestly be said at global scale given the data that exists, and where the uncertainty actually sits.
• Consistency year to year. A stocktake is only useful if this year’s number can be compared with last year’s.
• Where the gaps are. Saying plainly which regions and building types are not represented, rather than letting a global average imply coverage that is not there.

Why it matters

Operational energy has been tracked for decades. Embodied carbon has not, and it is now roughly half the problem. Getting it into the annual global account is how it stops being treated as a secondary concern.