Ligia Noronha, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the New York Office of the United Nations Environment Programme, met with CIB President Makarand Hastak and CEO Don Ward at the start of the latter’s visit to North America in November.
In a wide-ranging discussion lasting 90 minutes, ASG Noronha confirmed that the UN Cities Unit wished to engage with CIB, and UNEP saw the CIB’s value as research support in a similar way to the Global Alliance for Building and Construction (GlobalABC) provides policy support.
Specifically, following the Chaillot Declaration, signatories have asked UNEP to act as secretariat of the Intergovernmental Council for Buildings and Climate (ICBC) which was launched at COP29 on November 20th. This Council will support countries in developing and implementing their national climate plans. UNEP believe the Council can be very useful in reinforcing the implementation of climate actions at the local, national, and international levels, and recognise that the experts from CIB including WBC2025 could make a strong contribution to the topics which are of interest to the ICBC members, which include Finance, Whole Life Cycle Carbon, and Data. The UN’s Cities Unit is keen to engage with CIB on these topics and to ensure that robust
