UN Environment Programme · GlobalABC
Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction
The flagship annual assessment of the buildings and construction sector’s progress toward global climate goals — and the benchmark that governments, industry and investors measure themselves against.
Commissioned by
UNEP & GlobalABC
Our role
Lead Coordinating Author
Period
2018 – 2025
Status
Ongoing · annual edition
Overview
The Sector's
Annual Reckoning
Led by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, the report tracks trends in energy demand, carbon emissions, materials, policy and investment across the whole sector. It synthesises data from international agencies, national governments and research institutions, benchmarks that evidence against net-zero pathways, and sets out the priority actions that follow.
The 2025–2026 edition is the tenth. It found a sector accounting for 37% of global emissions and close to half of all global material extraction — still expanding faster than it is decarbonising.
The Global Status Report is the most comprehensive global assessment of how the buildings and construction sector is performing against climate goals — and, year after year, of how far short it still falls.
For policymakers it is the reference point for setting building energy codes and national commitments. For industry and investors it is the yardstick that says whether the sector’s own targets are being met. That makes the analysis behind it consequential, and it is why the report is rebuilt from the underlying data every single year rather than updated at the margins.