A coalition of business and government groups announced 26 climate action initiatives at Cities, Regions and Built Environment Day at COP26.

The initiatives include the Race to Zero Commitment to achieve net zero carbon by 2050 at the latest. As a front runner initiative in the Race to Zero, 44 businesses including developers, designers and asset managers representing $85 billion annual turnover sign World Green Building Council?s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment to accelerate action to tackle whole life carbon emissions from the built environment by 2030.

According to the coalition, 1049 cities and local governments have joined Race to Zero. ?Representing 722 million people, this collective action has the potential to reduce global emissions by 1.4 gigatons annually by 2030. C40 Cities has launched a new Clean Construction Action Coalition of cities and construction sector companies today to connect and accelerate the just and fair change we need.? Since 2015, 136 countries have included buildings in their Nationally Determined Contributions, an increase of around 55 pe rcent; and 12 countries (UK, Morocco, Mexico, France, Germany, Switzerland, Jordan, Chile, Kenya, Turkey, UAE, and Argentina)  have made building decarbonisation commitments since 2018.

?This is a significant step in the right direction to decarbonise economies as 65 per cent of population growth by 2030 will occur in countries that have NDCs that mention building energy efficiency and/or bui...