Everywhere around the world, climate change is forcing communities to rethink their built environment - the intricate network of buildings and infrastructure that makes up and supports all of our cities. If we are to have any hope, we have to deep engage urban communities to build a consensus for change and rapidly deploy innovative and integrated urban systems that can serve as pathways towards decarbonization. Using the MENA region as a case study, our experts will discuss the different pathways to decarbonization including:

• Wide-scale renewable electrification
• A circular approach to material supply chains
• Digital systems, to optimize and scale solutions
• Governance for both public procurement and private investment, to better embed high ambition
• Decarbonization pathways for the built environment
• Healthy, resilient, and financially viable buildings, cities, and infrastructure systems.

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Featuring an exceptional journey of real-time strategy, the workshop allows participants to weave their stories, ideas, and musings into a tapestry of shared reflection. Led by the World Green Building Council, the session aims to achieve several objectives including activating the Sustainable Reconstruction and Recovery Framework to chart a course of action, and defining priorities and action plans to empower networks and Green Building Councils to lead these efforts both regionally and locally.

The future energy mix of most places will include both renewable electricity and zero emissions hydrogen. This mix will vary by location, but in all places will demand new infrastructure and investment alongside the transition of the electrical grid. Green hydrogen holds significant importance in the future of the built environment for several reasons including energy storage, emergency power generation and resilience, as well as urban mobility and transit.

While green hydrogen has immense potential, there are also challenges to overcome, such as the cost of production, infrastructure development, and ensuring the sustainability of hydrogen production methods. However, with continued research, innovation, and investment, green hydrogen can play a pivotal role in shaping a more sustainable and environmentally friendly built environment. This panel will explore:

• Future energy mix scenarios that could influence capital allocation in buildings and infrastructure
• How asset developers and owners can best manage their exposure to the energy transition through scenario-planning (including supply-side scenarios, buildings systems, land transportation systems and aviation systems)

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The building and construction sector, responsible for the largest share of global carbon emissions, has the potential to spearhead a movement towards a future that is energy-efficient, regenerative, and equitable. Led by the World Green Building Council, the session aims to: Highlight the MENA Regional Network's efforts in 2023 towards the Zero Carbon Readiness Framework. Share the key findings from the UAE Zero Readiness Report, conducted by WorldGBC MENA Regional Partner AESG. Identify potential pathways towards low embodied carbon construction materials and define knowledge gaps to create a roadmap for transitioning to low embodied carbon construction in MENA.

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The 2022 UN Global Status Report estimates that energy demand from buildings increased by around 4% to 135 EJ - the largest increase in the last decade.

Digital twin technology with advanced data analytics capabilities, powered by artificial intelligence (Al), offer valuable insights that can transform the way we manage buildings. It allows for the swift detection of inefficiencies and faults, efficient asset management, and an overall reduction in energy and carbon intensity. During this session, a team of digital experts from Para and CopperTree Analytics will explore:

• How Al-driven digital twin technology can address the challenges associated with building operations, leading to reduced energy consumption
• Real world examples of this technology, discussing the outcomes it can deliver
• Its potential to help organizations achieve their decarbonization objectives in our fight against climate change.

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The aviation sector is a critical contributor to global carbon emissions, accounting for approximately 2% of total emissions, the majority of which is attributed to propulsion. Technological advancements, such as the development of more fuel-efficient aircraft, the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), and the exploration of electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft, offer promising opportunities for reducing emissions.
However the scale of this energy transition in aviation requires new infrastructure to be planned for major airports within the coming years, if promises of sector decarbonization are to match the requirements of the Paris Agreement. Within this context, this session brings our network's leading experts to discuss:

• The impact of the decarbonization and energy transition on airports
• The role that airlines can play in enabling the transition of airport energy infrastructure onto a zero emissions trajectory
• The role and future of airlines and fleets
• Decarbonizing airport buildings and facilities, land transportation, air-service vehicles and airport operations as well as aircraft fuel infrastructure.

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The journey towards mitigating climate impact in the built environment necessitates the adoption of scalable technologies that extract data from buildings to enhance overall performance while significantly reducing energy consumption and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.

Building owners and facilities teams globally grapple with similar challenges. There are numerous priorities to consider and allocate budget for, a significant need for skilled personnel to operate buildings, and an ever-growing list of maintenance issues that require immediate attention. Led by digital experts with extensive experience in leveraging building analytics to deliver solutions for challenges in the built environment, this session will delve into:

• How data analytics can harness data from buildings to improve building performance while maintaining comfort and wellness.
• How data-driven operation can swiftly detect faults and prioritize them, significantly reduce GHG emissions, and enable operations and maintenance teams to operate buildings more efficiently.
• How building analytics can be employed for sustainable retrofits.
• How analytics can be used to measure and verify energy savings in buildings, thereby contributing to the global effort in climate change mitigation

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The healthcare sector accounts for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States and 3.2% of emissions in the United Kingdom. Hospitals face unique challenges in decarbonization due to their complex infrastructure, energy- intensive operations, and the critical need for continuous care. However, the sector also holds significant potential for sustainable transformation and improved public health outcomes.
In many places, acute health infrastructure has a structural reliance on fossil gas for district energy systems and back-up power which hampers decarbonization efforts. Continued reliance on fossil fuel infrastructure presents a br class=" br-controller "oad sector risk to ongoing emissions reduction. Decarbonization in healthcare must be delivered in the context of not compromising the provision of care nor the underlying resilience to maintain uninterrupted operations. The pathways to deliver a low emission healthcare sector are technically challenging and demand an integrated approach to building design, supporting infrastructure and operational management. This event explores

• The challenging technical opportunities to make hospitals sustainable
• Models of care and delivering health services
• Hospital resilience and operational continuity
• Resource management, electrification, and other topics

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Data centre demand is growing with Al, content streaming, mobile devices, distributed work and the speed increases all driving growth in the backbone of the world's nervous system. As renewable energy comes to dominate the energy system, the embodied emissions associated with data centres are set to become a significant driver of sector emissions. bringing together experts with extensive expertise in designing and managing data centre projects, this session covers the five major pillars for data centre decarbonization:

• Strategic heat source asset (thermal re-use).
• Low-carbon construction materials for facilities.
• Adaptive re-use of existing building stock.
• Clean energy produced and used on-site
• Re-imagined data-centric metrics for evaluation, permitting and planning to enable low-embodied and operational-carbon performance.

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In the global race to decarbonize our human society, transportation emissions account for a substantial portion of the challenge and are proving stubbornly resistant to reduction in most places.

When assessing strategies for transportation decarbonization, cities, states and countries will have to weigh cost, quality of life and other factors in their selection of strategies to deliver robust and reliable emissions reduction outcomes. This session will cover:

• How governments can use scenarios to make effective decisions for the pathways to a low emissions transport system and allocate public funding to greatest effect.
• The infrastructure implications of transit electrification and the costs and benefits of value chain transition from fossil fuels to zero emissions fuels and renewable electricity

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The growth of sustainability-linked finance is a critical component of the transition to zero emissions.

Most financial institutions are developing loan and fixed income products with incentive structures and requirements for decarbonization - Sustainability-Linked Loans (SLL) and Green Bonds are both showing enormous growth. Many national and regional jurisdictions have established taxonomy guidance for sustainable finance products, and the industry is gathering momentum.

bringing together bank sustainability leads and sector specialists, this event seeks to explore how sustainable finance products can be strengthened and better understood by borrowers, lenders and their respective stakeholders, covering:

• Policies and regulations
• Sustainable finance products
• Cost of capital and yield implications and structural obligations for performance
• Asset performance
• Innovation, benchmarks, risks, and attributes
• Sector considerations - property, land transportation, aviation, ports and shipping, telecommunications and technology, and health
• Asset assurance
• Planning, design, construction, and operations
• Counter-party ESG- disclosure, targets, and performance

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In a world combating climate change, businesses have a key role to play, by setting an example and leading the way in transforming their business models and transitioning their operations towards sustainability and net zero. In this session, representatives from Dar, the UN High Level Climate Champions, the United States' Green Building Council, and PwC will share the steps their companies and collectives have been taking towards creating a more sustainable future and even reaching net zero.

Sidara Group Treasurer and Director of Dar Ventures Nader Abou Shadi will join Mashreq, a regional and global leader in banking and finance, at the Climate Finance Hub to discuss the impact and success of green building.

Though many of us do not immediately associate water with carbon emissions, the process of extracting and transferring water for domestic or industrial use has significant embodied carbon. Indeed, there is a considerable energy consumption rate for every cubic metre of water we use. But there are solutions.

In an insightful session moderated by Dar’s Ibrahim Kronfol at the Dar Pavilion in COP28 UAE, experts from the Red Sea Global, HUMANN Building Solutions, ZEF Concepts, and Northshore spotlight the hidden carbon footprint of water and present solutions that could help decarbonise this essential sector

• Ibrahim Kronfol — Design Manager, Dar (moderator)
• Rock Ridolfi — Associate, Engineering Economics (joining remotely)
• Daniel Huard — Principal, HUMANN Building Solutions (joining remotely)
• Rabih El Fadel — Managing Director, ZEF Concepts & CEO/ Co-Founder, Phyla Earth Limited
• Erin Rowe — Sustainability Program Manager, Northshore (joining remotely)
• Ayman Shahatah — Sustainability Assistant Manager, Red Sea Global (joining remotely)

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In two separate sessions facilitated and led by the Emirates Green Building Council, the event spotlights women leaders who are pioneering sustainability on everything from water, waste, and materials to energy and finance.

Session 1: Water, Waste, Materials

• Farah Yassine, Women Network Chair (moderator)
• Muna Al Nahdi - Head of Sustainability & Consultancy, Farnek
• Alicia Dauth - Senior Environmental Consultant, AESG
• Ruth Waugh - General Manager and International Business Development Director, Twintec Middle East. VP Marketing and Communications, Twintec.
• Rosario Maguey-Pena - Senior Façade Engineer, Arup

• Farah Yassine, Women Network Chair (moderator)
• Hala Omar - Sustainability Manager, Dar
• Alida Saleh - Head of Sustainability, JLL and Senior Advisor to CCT
• Ragini Kalapatapu - ESG Lead, Egis
• Nadia Ibrahim, UN Global Compact

Facilitated and led by the Emirates Green Building Council, the event spotlights emerging voices and youth perspectives from a variety of local and regional universities

• Sheikha AlShafar - Cofounder, Clamitify (moderator)
• Ahmad Almessabi - Senior Chemical Engineering Student, Khalifa University
• Alina Anas - Civil Engineering Student at American University of Sharjah
• Alreem Almuheiri - Electrical Engineering Student, American University of Dubai, COY18 Youth Delegate, and Sustainability Advocate at MENA Youth Network
• Meriem Hamidi - Student of BSc in Mechanical Engineering at RIT