Led by Built by Nature and the Forest & Climate Leaders’ Partnership, this high-level session brought together inspiring leaders from across the world at the first Buildings and Climate Global Forum in Paris, where buildings – and consequently cities – took centre stage in climate action. The session recognised that mainstreaming of these renewable materials can provide an important part of the buildings decarbonisation solution with a ‘triple S’ value: carbon is sequestered as they grow; wood and biobased can be substituted for more carbon intensive materials such as concrete and steel; and they can store carbon for long periods of time – in other words, a proven, highly cost-effective, natural carbon capture and storage technology.

The Buildings and Climate Global Forum brought together numerous ministers and high-level representatives of key private and third sector organisations in an effort to spur the decarbonisation of the buildings sector, following up on progress made at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai in December.

This event sought to:

1. Highlight the critical role that timber and biobased construction materials should play in reducing the carbon footprint of the built environment by providing renewable, low embodied carbon alternatives to concrete and steel and providing a natural carbon storage technology in

   buildings and cities.
   

2. Demonstrate that governments have a key role to play in incentivising the increased use of

   timber and biobased materials for construction through policy and public procurement, thereby

   driving up the economic value of long-term uses (and carbon storage potential) of wood and

   attracting investment in forestry and associated industries, creating jobs and supporting wood

   and wider biobased material cultures.
   

3. Demonstrate that there is a powerful win-win for governments and industry to collaborate and drive investment in bio-based materials and Sustainable Forest Management practices beyond issue-specific risk minimization approaches such as zero-deforestation or biodiversity loss to deliver the best environmental, social and economic outcomes as part of a just transition towards a decarbonised built environment.

The full photo gallery of the networking event can be found here.