Global Resiliency Dialogue to announce new resilience guidelines at 27th UN Conference of the Parties

The Global Resiliency Dialogue (GRD) will announce the publication of the Global Building Resilience Guidelines (Guidelines) at the 27^th UN Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on November 17^th. The Guidelines are based on the findings of two prior surveys conducted by the GRD and provide a framework for jurisdictions around the world to consider as they work to effectively integrate future-focused climate science into building codes and standards. The GRD’s work stems from the increasing trends in global weather-related disasters, most notably increases in flooding, extreme weather, extreme temperature and wildfire/bushfires, and the need to enhance building resilience to future hazard events.

Over the last two years, the GRD members have engaged in the gathering of global data through two surveys and the use of that data to produce the Guidelines. In February 2021, the GRD published findings of its first international survey, The Use of Climate Data and Assessment of Extreme Weather Event Risks in Building Codes around the World, which found that nearly all building codes and standards used globally rely on historical data when constructing hazard scenarios, such as flood maps, wind maps, and average temperature ranges. The release of the second publication, Delivering Climate Resilient Building Codes and Standards, was announced by representatives of the Dialogue in a hybrid presentation during COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. The second survey report, which gathered findings from stakeholders throughout Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, explores potential methods and research needs to effectively address future climate risk in codes and provides a definition for building resilience to guide future work.

Developed based on results of the two global surveys, the Guidelines provide a series of considerations for regulators to draw upon to provide a high level of building resilience to future climate risk. The Guidelines introduce 15 Principles intended to help inform the development of building codes and standards, as well as the broader building safety ecosystem, that incorporate future-focused climate resilience. By constructing a framework that integrates building and climate science, the Guidelines provide a holistic perspective for enhancing building resilience to climate-induced changing risk profiles by exploring the likely approaches needed to make informed decisions and effective regulation across the built environment. The Guidelines are intended to be applicable for all jurisdictions regardless of the level of sophistication of their building regulatory landscape.

GRD members from the International Code Council will present the Guidelines during Solutions Day at the Buildings Pavilion at COP27, located in the Blue Zone, on Thursday, November 17^th from 3:00-4:00pm Central European Time (CET). The session, entitled Addressing Extreme Weather Events in Building Codes: Global Building Resilience Guidelines, will be a hybrid event and can be accessed here.

The Global Resiliency Dialogue was established in 2019, convening building code development and research organizations from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States; including the International Code Council, Australian Building Codes Board, the National Research Council of Canada, and the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. The GRD is a joint initiative seeking to inform the development of building codes that draw on both building science and climate science to improve the resilience of buildings and communities to intensifying risks from weather-related natural hazards.

To learn more about the Global Resiliency Dialogue, visit www.globalresiliency.org. To learn more about the International Code Council’s engagement at COP, visit www.iccsafe.org/unfccc.