WorldGBC Launches Major Climate Initiative to Decarbonise Building Sector Across Africa

LONDON, May 6, 2026 – The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) announced a significant expansion of its climate action support for Africa, selecting Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa to join a pioneering project aimed at accelerating the adoption of sustainable construction and renovation solutions.

Led by national Green Building Councils (GBCs) and delivered through multi-stakeholder coalitions, WorldGBC will support these four nations in developing or advancing national climate action roadmaps for the building sector. These initiatives are designed to set out clear, practical steps to cut emissions, improve resilience, and transform the built environment between now and 2050.

The focus on Africa is critical, as buildings and construction are responsible for approximately one-third of global energy-related carbon emissions. Furthermore, Africa is expected to see the largest growth in new floor space globally, meaning policy and investment decisions made today will shape emissions and quality of life for generations to come. WorldGBC data from Europe, where similar roadmaps have been implemented, shows they have increased ambition in over 40 different policies and deployed more than €300 million of public sector innovation funding.

The co-created roadmaps will be aligned with both global and national climate goals, setting out short, medium, and long-term actions for all key stakeholders to cut energy use, improve efficiency, and increase circularity and resilience. Each roadmap will be science-based, co-created and endorsed by GBCs, government, industry, finance, and civil society, and framed around measurable goals for tracking progress. This initiative builds on the success of the #BuildingLife project in Europe, which delivered 12 national Whole Life Carbon roadmaps.

Cristina Gamboa, CEO of WorldGBC, emphasized the strategic importance of the expansion: “At the World Green Building Council, roadmaps for the building and construction industry are a core mechanism for delivering our global Building the Transition strategy, helping translate long-term climate ambition into coordinated action on the ground. Supporting… GBCs in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa reflects our commitment to ensuring that the transition… is inclusive, equitable and regionally led.”

The commitment from the participating GBC leaders highlights the local impact:

• Ethiopia: Liku Solomon, Managing Director and Co-Founder of the Ethiopian Green Building Council, stated that the grant is an “essential catalyst” that empowers the GBC to “bridge the gap between policy and practice” by translating national commitments (NDC 3.0 and CRGE) into coordinated, actionable measures.
• Kenya: Nasra Nanda, CEO of the Kenya Green Building Society, sees the grant as marking a pivotal shift “from championing green building to delivering it.” She is determined that the scalable, low-carbon, resilient models proven in Kenya will “ripple across the continent”.
• Nigeria: Danjuma Waniko, President of the Green Building Council Nigeria, noted that the roadmaps will help Nigeria make better decisions about how they build, ensuring that outcomes like decarbonization, resilience, affordability, health, and jobs are treated as connected.
• South Africa: Bakang Moeng, Manager of Public Sector Advocacy & Sustainability at the Green Building Council South Africa, explained that the roadmap will translate South Africa’s climate commitments into locally relevant pathways, beginning with Gauteng as a “high-impact pilot” to create a model for replication across provinces.

The launch coincides with the conclusion of the first International Conference on the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, underscoring the global push toward energy efficiency and clean energy systems in the building sector. WorldGBC co-led the development of this roadmap-based approach, which has been formally recognized by the COP30 Presidency, the UNFCCC, and the Climate High-level Champions as a Plan to Accelerate Solutions (PAS).