The WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities announced 5 new subnational governments joining the WRI-led Global Partnership on Energy Efficiency in Buildings – the Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA). The new members are Kisii County, Kenya; Merida, Mexico; Nairobi City County, Kenya; Pasig City, Philippines; and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Members of the BEA commit to “improving their buildings by adopting new policies, demonstration projects and tracking progress against their goals” (WRI, April 4, 2017).

According to the IFC, investments in green buildings offer enormous potential in emerging markets: USD 16 trillion by 2030 in East Asia and the Pacific alone. However, in order to make the most of this opportunity, coordination and action are needed. A BEA workshop with cities and investors at the Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) Forum in April 2017 looked into how cities can prepare projects for private sector investments.