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The building and construction sector, including infrastructure,
plays a huge role in reducing carbon emissions.
Right now we look at data
and actually we see that around 38%
of global energy-related emissions
come from building and construction.
Now, about 28% of those emissions
comes from the operational aspect,
so the operations, the energy use
that a building or infrastructure uses day to day,
but around 11% comes from actually the construction process,
so using concrete and using steel.
And it's become so significant that now actually concrete is responsible
for 7% of total greenhouse gas emissions.
So industry plays a huge role
in now currently producing greenhouse gas emissions,
which also shows the potential
for industry to dramatically reduce carbon emissions
and really help us achieve the Paris Agreement
of two degrees, or ideally below two degrees, of global warming.
You need to look at leadership, procurement and innovation,
and we need to do all three of those things.
Leadership in the sense that we need really strong leaders,
both CEOs, mayors, governors and premiers of states and regions,
and prime ministers and presidents of countries,
to set really strong and ambitious targets
that will help us meet the Paris Agreement.
That then needs to be fed through into procurement policies
and into real estate policies
so that it becomes binding
and it can actually have a wider impact through the whole supply chain,
which then, actually, spurs innovation.
So if you set a target, you set a standard,
it's amazing then what industry will be able to do.
They'll innovate in order to meet those really strict procurement targets.
So what's really important is that there is a clear signal, a clear message,
sent to industry that there must be change
and that change must come soon and that solutions are needed,
but we need to pour more resource and more commitment
into research and development.
We have amazing technologies these days.
We have so much knowledge of science.
We're convinced that there's a lot that can be done
as long as the right efforts are placed in the right direction.