Emirates Green Building Council (EmiratesGBC)  has called upon all businesses, entities, and cities in the UAE and the region to formally endorse and sign the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment.

EmiratesGBC is an independent forum aimed at conserving the environment by strengthening and promoting green building practices.

Announced globally by the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment challenges businesses and organisations across the world to take advanced climate action by setting ambitious targets to eliminate operational carbon emissions from their building portfolios by 2030 and to advocate for all buildings to be net zero in operation by 2050.

These targets are set to meet the Paris Agreement ambition of below 2 degrees of global warming. This month, 19 global cities, representing 130 million urban citizens, committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by ensuring that new buildings operate at net zero carbon by 2030, said the statement from EmiratesGBC.

The commitment’s aim is to generate the next wave of high momentum to cut down global greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and inspire national governments to step up national climate action plans over the next two years, it stated.

More cities, states and regions are set to commit to enacting regulations or planning policy to drive construction of new buildings operating at net zero carbon from 2030 and enable all existing buildings to operate at net zero carbon by 2050, it stated.

This will spur the market to develop the capacity to meet this increased demand and demonstrate market readiness for a more aggressive national strategy it aded.

EmiratesGBC Chairman Saeed Al Abbar said: "We will not have sufficient time to reach the Paris Agreement targets, which calls on decarbonising the global economy within 20 to 30 years if we delay action. We need to achieve tangible results and the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment is a unique opportunity to ambitiously work toward reducing energy demand and controlling carbon emissions."

"This calls for the concerted efforts of all governments, businesses, civil society organisations and the public at large to achieve the significant milestone that will be our true investment in the future for our upcoming generations," noted Al Abbar.

"I am very proud that Majid Al Futtaim, an active board member of the EmiratesGBC, is among the first three organisations globally to sign up the commitment, thus demonstrating the UAE’s global leadership in sustainable development," he stated.

"I encourage the private sector to follow this lead and position their organisations as global leaders in sustainability," he added.-TradeArabia News Service