Near-zero emission and resilient buildings are the new normal in all regions by 2030 – Buildings Breakthrough Goal

1. Governments should agree on shared qualitative definitions and principles for near-zero emission and resilient buildings, and agree on common guidelines for codes, standards and public disclosure certificates, including reporting indicators for performance assessment. Such guidelines should support comparability of performance, while allowing for flexibility to reflect local practices and context.
2. Governments should jointly create procurement and policy commitments for near-zero emission and resilient buildings, both new and existing, and strengthen commitments on near-zero and low-emission materials and appliances. Governments should co-ordinate policies, especially establish Minimum Energy Performance Standards, to improve efficiency of air conditioners in all markets. Countries should co-ordinate targets and regulatory trajectories, and share policy best practices, for clean and efficient heating technologies like heat pumps.
3. Countries should work together to expand international financial and technical assistance programmes that support investment in near-zero emission and resilient buildings, to address the following priorities more strongly: providing blended financial instruments, identifying policies and regulations that reduce private investment risk, building capacity among local banks and lenders, developing and aggregating project pipelines, and addressing key data gaps for financial risk assessments. These efforts must involve development banks, private finance, banks, and insurers.
4. Countries should work together to agree shared research priorities that support the implementation of international commitments. Countries should facilitate improved communication of high-quality research to inform the decision-making process and strengthen existing research networks to bring in new expertise, especially from emerging markets and developing economies. Countries should develop shared demonstration projects of key technologies, construction practices, tools and business models at scale, using government projects to lead the way.
5. Countries should strengthen the role of existing networks to share knowledge and provide methods, tools, guidance and resources to identify and address institutional and personnel capacity-building gaps across all regions. This includes a focus on supporting developing economies with developing, implementing and upgrading building and energy codes.