Recording

Organizer

World Green Building Council

Background

With climate impacts—such as droughts, rising sea levels, heatwaves, and floods—affecting 85% of the global population, resilience-building is essential to enable built environments to withstand and thrive amidst these challenges (IPCC, 2022). Real estate and infrastructure, representing two-thirds of global wealth and valued at over $300 billion USD, comprise the world’s largest asset class (McKinsey Global Institute, 2020). As climate risks grow, greener and more resilient assets will be safer and more insurable, creating powerful incentives for resilience-based investment.

A 2019 report by the Global Commission on Adaptation projects that climate adaptation measures could generate $7.1 trillion (£5.6 trillion) in net benefits by 2030 (Global Commission on Adaptation, 2019). Climate-resilient building projects offer opportunities to mitigate risks, safeguard assets, and secure long-term returns. By incorporating resilience metrics into investment evaluations, including risk assessments of location and adaptive design features, investors can align their portfolios with sustainability objectives. (World Bank, 2023).

The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) is at the forefront of enabling ambitious, equitable policies, equipping finance actors to deploy impactful capital, and empowering changemakers to deliver progress. Thus, the session will highlight the Buildings Breakthrough initiative, aiming to accelerate the transition to near-zero and resilient buildings on a global scale. It will examine the critical role of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and the importance of including specific references to the built environment, along with commitments to integrate resilience into sector policies (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2023).

Additionally, discussions will explore how local roadmaps can align with Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), building the transition to near-zero and resilient buildings.

It will aim to bridge the gap between finance, policy and built environment stakeholders and build capacity to co-create national decarbonisation and resilience roadmaps, amplify global, regional and local advocacy, and foster policies, standards and codes to drive the agenda. Aligning financial decisions with mitigation and adaptation goals to build the transition for a decarbonised and resilient future for all. 

Objectives

• Set the stage on the role of buildings and the built environment in anticipating, adapting to, and responding to climate impacts, highlighting how financial stakeholders—including investors, insurers, and policymakers—can scale climate adaptation and resilience within the sector.
• Equip investors with key resilience metrics and tools, such as adaptive design features and location-based risk assessments, to enable informed decision-making, reduce systemic risks, and enhance long-term value while supporting climate adaptation goals.
• Showcase successful policy-finance collaborations that fund climate-resilient projects, demonstrating how these partnerships support local climate adaptation and mitigation targets and serve as models for scalable, impactful solutions.
• Empower cross-sector collaboration through capacity building to transition from individual case studies to programmatic, scalable solutions that align with NDCs, NAPs, and local roadmaps, fostering unified, sustainable climate-resilient development across the built environment. 

General Structure

Relevant Resources

Presentation Slides

www.worldgbc.org