section_path: Safety/Decarbonising construction
section_name: Decarbonising construction
paragraph_text: Decarbonising construction
  
  The construction industry may require transformation at pace and at scale if it is to successfully contribute to achieving the target set out in The Paris Agreement of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C above industrial levels. The World Green Building Council has stated the buildings and infrastructure around the world can reach 40% less embodied carbon emissions but that this can only be achieved through urgent transformation.
  
  Conclusions from industry leaders have suggested that the net zero transformation is likely to be challenging for the construction industry, but it does present an opportunity. Action is demanded from governments, standards bodies, the construction sector, and the engineering profession to meet the decarbonising targets.
  
  In 2021, the National Engineering Policy Centre published its report Decarbonising Construction: Building a new net zero industry, which outlined key areas to decarbonise the construction sector and the wider built environment. This report set out around 20 different recommendations to transform and decarbonise the construction sector, including recommendations for engineers, the construction industry and decision makers, plus outlined six-overarching ‘system levers’ where action taken now will result in rapid decarbonisation of the construction sector. These levels are:
  
  Progress is being made internationally to decarbonise the sector including improvements to sustainable procurement practice such as the CO2 performance ladder in the Netherlands and the Danish Partnership for Green Public Procurement. There are also now demonstrations of applying the principles of circular economy practices in practice such as Circl, ABN AMRO 's sustainable pavilion and the Brighton Waste House.