2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

The Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction (Buildings-GSR) is a flagship publication of the UNEP-hosted Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC). The Buildings-GSR provides an annual snapshot of the progress of the buildings and construction sector on a global scale and reviews the status of policies, finance, technologies, and solutions to monitor whether the sector is aligned with the Paris Agreement goals. It also provides stakeholders with evidence to persuade policymakers and the overall buildings and construction community to take action.

What is new in the 2022 Buildings-GSR? 

Buildings and construction: disruptions and challenges facing the buildings sector in 2022 

Global Building Carbon Tracker: Are we on track towards the Paris Agreement Goals?

Updates on building codes and building decarbonisation in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

Status of investment in building energy efficiency

Deep dive on:

• Africa (regional focus)
• Building materials (topical focus)

The 2022 Buildings-GSR finds that despite a substantial increase in investment and success at a global level lowering the energy intensity of buildings, the sector’s total energy consumption and CO2 emissions increased in 2021 above pre-pandemic levels. Buildings energy demand increased by around 4% from 2020 to 135 EJ – the largest increase in the last 10 years. CO2 emissions from buildings operations have reached an all-time high of around 10 GtCO2, around a 5% increase from 2020 and 2% higher than the previous peak in 2019. 

The buildings and construction sector is not on track to achieve decarbonization by 2050. And the gap between the actual climate performance of the sector and the decarbonization pathway is widening.

Global energy price volatility and rising interest rates are likely to hamper investment in building decarbonization by governments, households, and businesses.