Committed to Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements for All
In Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC
Held in conjunction with the World Sustainable Built Environment Conference 2017 Hong Kong (WSBE17 Hong Kong), the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GABC) Regional Roundtable for Asia-Pacific was productively held on June 8, 2017 at Jockey Club Environmental Building in Hong Kong. It was organised by the UN Environment and co-hosted by the Hong Kong Green Building Council, about 40 participants from over 10 countries joined in the meeting. Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS) delegation attended the meeting by invitation and shared the IGMC Initiative with all the participants. The objective of this meeting was to identify specific actions and/or project opportunities in the region which the GABC and partners can further support and/or facilitate, and contributed to the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) identified in the lead-up to the Paris Climate Agreement.
Mr. Bay Wong, Chairman
of Hong Kong Green Building Council delivered a welcome speech to all the
participants, he pointed out that green building is not just about building,
green building is culture that we should learn and respect. Mr. Curt Garrigan,
Cities and Buildings Programme Officer, UN Environment and GABC Secretariat
said at the opening session that the GABC provided a platform for countries and
non-state actors from the Buildings and Construction sector to scale up actions
to harness its climate mitigation potential and put it on a well below 2°C
path. Today, the GABC gathers 24 countries and more than 70 non-state
organizations from all over the world. Mr. Yves-Laurent Sapoval, Senior Advisor
of the Directorate for Housing, Urban Development and Landscape, Government of
France indicated that the need for actions to address climate change, and we
should work together to make cities more sustainable and resilience.
Urban Development and Landscape, Government of France delivering remarks
UN Environment and GABC Secretariat delivering remarks
The building sector intersects in
all countries with issues of Climate and Greenhouse gas emissions, Energy and
Resource Efficiency, Health and Well-being, Disaster Risk Reduction and
Resilience, Sustainable Urban Development, and Finance and Investment, among
other issues, and is therefore crucial to the implementation of global
agreements including the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for disaster
Reduction, the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda.
John Dulac, Energy Analyst of International Energy
Agency emphasized at his speech that swift action was needed to address
building envelope performance over the next 20 years to avoid the lock-in of
energy-intensive building investments, especially in developing regions. Professor Peter Graham, Swinburne University of
Technology, Executive Director of GBPN indicated that cooperative and
collaborative activities would be more effective if better engagement between
local government, business and community stakeholders, which required common
goals, agreed objectives and clear actions.
During the session of roundtable discussion, all
participants had been asked to briefly discuss their institution’s ongoing
actions and or needs related to their respective building sectors, including
those regional priorities and actions which would contribute to implementation
of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and this could be reflected in
the GABC Global Roadmap/Regional roadmaps, and the Global Status Report.
Challenges vary from country to country. Representatives from developing countries, such as India, Bhutan, Vietnam, etc, expressed the difficulties in promoting green building in their countries, such as lack of government awareness, financial support, and equivalent technology. While representatives from developed countries showed other perspectives, representative from Canada pointed out that a call for uniting all relevant stakeholders was quite necessary, and representative from Australia suggested that we should not pay too much attention on the good practices but should learn experiences from the faults we have made. Participants all agreed that five key areas should be paid more attention, which were proper public policies, education and public awareness, finance, market transformation and accurate measurement ways.
Bilateral discussions were the highlights of the meeting, which covered four areas: public policies, financing energy efficiency in buildings, market transformation and data and measurement. Representatives of countries and organisations are encouraged to identify actions, which could be developed or taken forward through collaborative efforts. GFHSdelegation attended the discussions on the topic of data and measurement. Mr. Lu Haifeng, Secretary-general of GFHS shared with the participants about the latest progress of the International Green Model City (IGMC) Initiative. The IGMC Standards 3.0 is an assessment and planning guidance tool for sustainable urban development and provides technical means and evaluation methods for the specific implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the New Urban Agenda at local and community levels. IGMC system can collect data from cities including buildings via internet and smart phone for analysis, diagnose, comparasion, certification and improvement. What attracted the participants most was that GFHS was currently working with professional high-tech company to produce a micromovie, which would use the technology of AR/VR to present the future life and future city in a fun and innovative way. Representatives from GABC andthe 10YFP Programme on Sustainable Buildings and Construction (SBC) both showed great interest in being members of IGMC Initiative and welcomed GFHS could also join in their membership.
The Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction was launched by France and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at COP-21 in Paris in December 2015. Endorsing a common statement, 24 countries and more than 70 organizations active in the buildings and construction sector have agreed to dramatically upscale action, through: Communication, Collaboration, and facilitating implementation.
As a voluntary international framework for concrete and substantial sectorial actions, the Alliance aims at:
●Supporting and accelerating the implementation of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs),
●Strengthening members’ human, technical, institutional and legal capacities,
●Mobilising adequate funding,
●Raising awareness towards buildings sector potential in reducing GHS emissions,
●Define a carbon neutrality strategy for the buildings and construction sector.
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