MODEL POLICY SUPPLEMENT Adoption Playbook for Whole Life Carbon Assessment Mandates

The document serves as a guide for government officials to mandate Whole Life Carbon Assessments (WLCA) for major developments to reach net-zero emissions. It outlines the benefits of WLCA, such as reducing embodied carbon and promoting circularity, while emphasizing 'just transition' principles to ensure the green transition is inclusive and protects workers' rights. The playbook provides a toolkit of 'adoption levers'—including zoning regulations, building codes, and financial incentives—and suggests KPIs to track success. It also categorizes governance structures (empowered, underpowered, and metropolitan) to help officials identify the correct agencies for policy implementation and provides a comparative list of existing carbon policies in cities like London, Vancouver, and Amsterdam.

• Whole Life Carbon Assessments (WLCA) are critical for mitigating climate change because construction emissions are significant globally, with 60% associated with the production and delivery of materials like cement and steel.
• To ensure a 'just transition' to a net-zero economy, cities must implement policies that protect livelihoods, create decent work opportunities, and include marginalized groups in urban governance.
• Governments can use several 'levers' to implement WLCA policies, including zoning regulations to specify minimum carbon tracking for new buildings, building codes to mandate low embodied carbon materials, and financial incentives like tax breaks.
• The document identifies five methodologies for addressing embodied carbon, ranging from basic 'Carbon reporting' to the most advanced 'Decarbonization', where residual emissions are compensated by energy export or offsets.
• The effectiveness of WLCA policy adoption depends on the local governance structure, which the playbook divides into cities with empowered mayors, underpowered mayors (common in South Asia, Africa, and South-East Asia), and metropolitan/regional governments.
• To attract real estate investors, cities should communicate the intrinsic financial advantages of WLCA projects, such as lower cost of capital via green bonds and reduced lifecycle operating expenses.

APA

World Economic Forum (2024). MODEL POLICY SUPPLEMENT Adoption Playbook for Whole Life Carbon Assessment Mandates. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Model_Policy_Adoption_Playbook_WLCA_2024.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. MODEL POLICY SUPPLEMENT Adoption Playbook for Whole Life Carbon Assessment Mandates. 2024. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Model_Policy_Adoption_Playbook_WLCA_2024.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=MODEL POLICY SUPPLEMENT Adoption Playbook for Whole Life Carbon Assessment Mandates |date=2024 |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Model_Policy_Adoption_Playbook_WLCA_2024.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2024model, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{MODEL POLICY SUPPLEMENT Adoption Playbook for Whole Life Carbon Assessment Mandates}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2024}, url = {https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Model_Policy_Adoption_Playbook_WLCA_2024.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }