New construction in Tianjin, China. Businesses design, build, finance, own, operate, renovate and occupy most buildings in cities.

To decrease buildings-related emissions, national and local governments must collaborate to create implementable policies that work for everyone.

The Financing Sustainable Cities Initiative connects stakeholders to improve municipal building energy efficiency. Photo by Alejandro/ Flickr

The majority of the energy used by buildings is wasted, resulting in increased energy costs and air pollution. Among C40 cities, this translates to between 50 percent and 75 percent of citywide carbon emissions.

A pilot project will benchmark energy use in 100 buildings across Dubai. Photo by Achim Fischer/Flickr

Dubai is blazing a new path for cities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by calling attention to energy consumption in buildings and highlighting the lack of data available to benchmark usage rates and measure progress.

Beijing skyline in the evening. Photo by Jens Schott Knudsen/ Flickr

China has grand plans to green its buildings.

The country’s national climate commitment calls for 50 percent of all new buildings constructed by 2020 to be certified green buildings, while its 13th Five-Year Plan prioritizes building efficiency.

Da Nang, Vietnam. Photo by Jean-Pierre Bluteau / Flickr

The government of Da Nang, Vietnam has prioritized building efficiency as part of its new Resilience Strategy to address public health and economic risks from climate change. In 2016, the city began working with the global Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA) partnership.

Bogota, Colombia is a Partner City of the Building Efficiency Accelerator. Photo by Rosalba Tarazona / Flickr

As Colombia’s capital and largest city, Bogotá has significant local government capacity.