Policy Pathways for Advancing Adequate Housing Through Circular Construction

The global housing crisis and the ecological crisis are deeply interconnected. Access to adequate housing remains a persistent global challenge, with an estimated 2.8 billion people living in inadequate conditions. This challenge is being intensified by rapid population growth and urbanization, which will require a massive expansion of housing construction and renovation in the coming decades. Under the prevailing linear construction paradigm, scaling housing provision would further deplete natural resources, increase greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, and accelerate ecosystem degradation. Circular construction offers a fundamentally different model: it promotes efficient resource use, extends building lifespans, and keeps building materials in a closed-loop economy through reuse, recycling, and upcycling. Despite its potential, however, its adoption remains limited. A key barrier is the lack of coherent, enabling, and integrated policy frameworks, insufficient financing instruments, and limited capacity among professionals along the buildings' value chain. This event will discuss the key findings of an upcoming paper developed under the Circular Built Environment Group of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction. The paper explores how policy frameworks can enable the scaling of circular construction to support the realization of the right to adequate housing. This directly advances the Belém Call for Action on Sustainable and Affordable Housing unveiled by the Intergovernmental Council on Buildings and Climate (ICBC) at COP30. The paper has a specific focus on Bangladesh, Senegal, and Ukraine. These cases illustrate how context-sensitive policies can respond to distinct challenges, including rapid urban growth, new housing demand, informal settlements upgrading, large-scale renovation, and post-conflict reconstruction. The session will be organized by the Ministry of the Environment of Finland and the GlobalABC Circular Built Environment group, and it will bring together representatives from intergovernmental organizations (UNEP, UN-Habitat, UNOPS), the civil sector (Habitat for Humanity International), and national and local governments (Bangladesh, Senegal, Ukraine). The session aims to inform global and national policy debates, foster cross-country learning, and contribute to actionable pathways that advance both SDG 11 and SDG 12, accelerating the transition toward a circular built environment that leaves no one behind.