2023 UNEP’s Annual Report on Private Sector Partnerships: Harnessing the Private Sector for solutions to the Three Planetary Environmental Crises

United Nations 2 years ago

2023 Report to the Committee of Permanent Representatives on Private Sector Engagement Tackling the three planetary environmental crises requires a transformative shift in markets, sectors and systems. This means ambitious action from the private sector is critical, and that is why the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is seeking to build wider and deeper collaborations that have impact with lasting solutions. UNEP would like to update the Committee of Permanent Representatives on its engagement with the private sector.  This report sets out the evolving policy context that highlights the role of the private sector in addressing the three planetary environmental crises; the pressure on business to act; how UNEP has refined its approach to private sector engagement including the due diligence process; how we are strengthening collaborations with other United Nations (UN) agencies and others.
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layersDaily Sustainability Digest

Published about 7 hours ago



This news batch contains no substantive sustainable construction development: no major breakthrough in low carbon construction materials, no new whole life carbon assessment mandate, no building-code reform, no retrofit programme, no procurement shift, no BREEAM v7 update and no significant project case study advancing net zero carbon buildings.

The relevant signal is indirect but important. COP31 debate over the timing of the next IPCC reports could shape the 2028 global stocktake, influencing national policy on whole life carbon, embodied carbon, lifecycle assessment, retrofit finance, planning standards and the carbon footprint of construction. Warnings over El Niño costs and weakening natural carbon sinks strengthen the case for climate-resilient, energy-efficient buildings, low carbon design and faster cuts to operational emissions and embodied carbon in materials.

For the construction sector, the absence is commercially revealing. Environmental sustainability in construction remains too often downstream of climate diplomacy rather than central to it, despite the built environment’s major role in energy demand, resource use and emissions. Sustainable building design, eco-design for buildings, circular economy in construction, sustainable material specification and building lifecycle performance need clearer policy treatment if governments are serious about decarbonising the built environment.

The practical agenda remains unchanged: net zero whole life carbon, credible environmental product declarations (EPDs), low embodied carbon materials, life cycle cost analysis, end-of-life reuse in construction, resource efficiency in construction and circular construction strategies must move from specialist practice into mainstream procurement. Without that shift, green construction and eco-friendly construction risk remaining policy aspirations rather than measurable progress in sustainable building practices.

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