The UK Green Building Council is delighted to announce that Simon McWhirter, Deputy Chief Executive, has been appointed as co-chair of the Built Environment Taskforce at the Climate Action Coalition alongside Coalition Chair Chris Skidmore.
Simon brings a wealth of experience and insight into the decarbonisation and much-needed future adaptation of the built environment into the role and sits on the Boards of the National Retrofit Hub, the UK’s Green Construction Board, Scotland’s Built Environment – Smarter Transformation construction innovation centre.
He also represents UKGBC on the World Green Building Council policy agenda; helping shape national and global discussions and the sharing of international best practice.
The Climate Action Coalition, launched by Secretary John Kerry in June 2024, was established with the sole purpose of unblocking the policy barriers to deliver the objectives set out by Paris Agreement in 2015. With about 40 per cent of global emissions coming from the built environment, and with global trends towards greater urbanisation, progressing climate action to decarbonise buildings – and making them more resilient for a future warmer climate – will be an essential global step to reduce emissions and tackle climate change.
The Built Environment Taskforce, led by Chris and Simon, will convene pioneering businesses, research bodies and civil society with a shared commitment to emissions reduction and adaptation. By focusing on both lessons from the UK and around the world, with a focus on the importance of setting clearer international standards, this new forum will share best practice and author its own policy interventions tracking progress across the calendar year in the run up to 2030, building momentum year on year between COP summits.
Speaking on Simon’s appointment, Chris said: “I am delighted to once again be working with Simon McWhirter. His insight and understanding of deeply technical and complex issues will be essential for the work of the Climate Action Coalition to calibrate its focus on where we can have most impact.
“Simon has held a variety of roles, advising governments and business, on the sustainability of the built environment, with a broad view across the linked climate, nature and cost-of-living crises. His commitment to this mission is renowned across the sector and was evident to me as Chair of the UK’s Net Zero Review in 2022.”
Simon McWhirter said: “The built environment has a panoply of progressive business and political levers that can act as real climate solutions in the environmental crisis we’re living through. And the Climate Action Coalition will help shape, promote and amplify those solutions on the global stage, and it enables us to use the pioneering work of our members and partners at UKGBC to help influence that international trajectory. So it’s great to be working with Chris again after the positive momentum we drove together through the Mission Zero Coalition.
“Now we can shift up a gear, helping facilitate the real-world deployment of the Buildings Breakthrough and giving governments the tools to show more ambition in the role that buildings can play in delivering braver global commitments.”
