As world leaders prepare to gather in Antalya, Türkiye, for COP31, attention is turning from setting climate ambitions to delivering concrete results. With energy efficiency, electrification, building renovation and climate finance featuring prominently on the agenda, the conference offers an important opportunity to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable energy system. But amid geopolitical tensions and mounting economic pressures, can governments turn their commitments into meaningful action?
Sam Robinson writes on the Energy Digital website that ahead of COP31 the presidency has launched a framework designed to reduce the operational intensity of buildings and accelerate electrification.
Note that this week the International Energy Agency has published a special report developed at the request of Türkiye and Australia, in the framework of the strategic partnership between the President of COP 31 and the IEA, that explores a pathway to improve global buildings energy intensity by at least 25% by 2035.
COP31: Türkiye Tables Energy-Efficient Buildings Framework
Ahead of COP31 in Antalya, Türkiye, the latest installment of the world’s most influential climate conference, the items high on policymakers’ agendas are already becoming clear.
One of these is building energy efficiency and electrification, with the COP Presidency launching the Antalya Compact for Energy Efficient Buildings.
The “Compact” is a framework open for any attending country to sign, designed to advance two of COP31’s Global Targets for 2035:
- Pursue a minimum 25 per cent reduction in the operational energy intensity of the global building stock by 2035 compared to 2020 levels.
- Accelerate efficient electrification in buildings in support of the COP31 Presidency’s objective of increasing electricity’s share of global energy consumption to 35 per cent by 2035.
Developed under Türkiye’s COP31 Presidency, with support from the secretariat of the United Nations Environment Programme-hosted Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC), the Compact outlines actions that governments, cities, financial institutions and buildings-sector stakeholders can take to help achieve COP’s 2035 targets.
Electrification means replacing fossil fuel-powered technologies and processes with those powered by electricity.
Figures from across the energy industry, including the IEA and Schneider Electric, have argued that electrification is a critical process for the energy industry and wider society, particularly in a global landscape disrupted by oil crises.
The Compact builds on the Declaration de Chaillot, a document signed by 70 countries in 2024 at the inaugural Buildings and Climate Global Forum, which aims to facilitate a rapid, fair, and effective transition toward near-zero-emission and resilient buildings.
An emissions-heavy source
The United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) ‘Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2025-2026‘ estimates that buildings are responsible for almost 40% of energy-related carbon emissions and energy demand.
With this figure in mind, the COP Presidency’s urgency in laying the groundwork for building efficiency gains is understandable.
The acceleration of building construction is also a critical factor. In 2024 alone, the floor area of buildings increased by 1.7% globally, reaching 272 billion square metres.
Although emissions and energy demand have, to some extent, been decoupled from global building floor area growth following renewable energy gains and a decrease in coal consumption, considerable progress is still needed to achieve the COP Presidency’s targets.
The UNEP report also estimates that energy efficiency investment needs to reach an additional US$3.6tn cumulatively by 2030 to align investment levels with the 2050 net-zero pathway.
In the report’s foreword, Martin Krause, Director, Climate Change Division of UNEP, acknowledges the progress made but cautions that “new construction continues to outpace decarbonisation, while renovation of existing buildings is far too slow.”
Instead, he urges a rethinking of the global approach to buildings. “Rather than viewing buildings solely as a problem to be fixed, this report presents them as a platform for delivery: a way to meet housing needs, reduce energy costs, strengthen resilience to climate extremes, and support inclusive economic growth, simultaneously,” he writes.
Six action areas
Given the building sector’s outsize share of emissions, the Compact outlines six key action areas for governments to advance in their respective countries:
- Integrating energy efficiency and electrification into national strategies.
- Strengthening the energy and carbon performance of new and existing buildings.
- Accelerating existing building renovation.
- Reducing energy demand and electrifying heating, cooling, cooking and appliances.
- Increasing building flexibility to support energy systems.
- Mobilising finance and capacity to deliver implementation at scale.
Although these measures, if implemented, will reduce emissions from the global building stock, Yves-Laurent Sapoval, co-chair of the GlobalABC, points out that the transition is also about improving the experience for people living, interacting and working in these structures.
“The transition to energy-efficient buildings is about much more than reducing emissions. It is about homes people can afford to heat and cool, schools where children can learn comfortably and hospitals that can deliver essential services without wasting energy,” he writes.
COP31 takes place from 9-20 November 2026.
External link
