On 11 November 2025 in Belem, Brasil, ministers and heads of delegations of countries – members of the Intergovernmental Council for Buildings and Climate (ICBC) convened for their Ministerial Meeting where they endorsed Belem Call for Action for Sustainable and Affordable Housing. The Belem Call for Action reaffirms that “housing affordability and sustainability must be pursued together; recognising that affordable, adequate, resource-efficient, low-carbon, climate-resilient and durable housing is essential to a just transition, the achievement of the SDGs and the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement”. The ministers stressed that addressing these challenges requires actions in different areas such as finance, construction practice, land use planning and zoning, regulation and social inclusion. These efforts are particularly urgent in regions experiencing rapid urbanization, population growth and widening housing deficits, where millions of households lack access to safe, adequate and affordable homes.

The Belem Call for Action is building on several international commitments and UN guidance for how to reconcile housing affordability and sustainability/climate-neutrality; those include: the Geneva UN Charter on Sustainable Housing (2015), WHO Housing and Health Guidelines (2018), the UNECE Ministerial commitments on housing sustainability and affordability (2025), the Global Champions for Housing (2025) and the Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Working Group on Adequate Housing for All (2025). It also draws on practical experiences of countries and cities, especially those with the high urbanization rate – in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 

To implement the international commitments on a local level, it is essential to apply locally grounded approaches within existing social, economic and cultural context. The practice of new housing construction or renovation of the existing housing unfortunately demonstrates that environmental sustainability and climate resilience have not been systematically implemented or often only one dimension is prioritized – affordable housing is not sustainable/climate resilient or high quality green sustainable housing is too costly and not affordable for the majority of the population. Of course, that there are examples and best practices of bringing the two or even three dimensions (economic, social/cultural, environment/climate) together and which are well documented – see, for instance, the #Housing2030 report (2021) chapter on climate neutral housing. However, this practice unfortunately is far not yet widespread and lots of work needs to be done to scale up those examples of reconciling housing affordability, social inclusion, cultural adequacy and environmental sustainability/climate neutrality. 

This workshop organized as part of the Lausanne Buildings and Construction Summit, is aimed at how this could be done and it takes a granular approach – through the lens of the “Housing Continuum”, or a full range of housing tenures and housing options (UNECE 2017). The Housing Continuum serves as a useful tool to  examine the interaction between housing affordability, social inclusion, cultural adequacy and environmental sustainability and climate neutrality across different segments of the housing system and in different social, economic and cultural contexts. 

Building on the foundation of the UNECE Housing Continuum – as well as similar frameworks developed in North America and parts of Europe – Habitat for Humanity has expanded and adapted the model into a Global Housing Continuum that can be applied across diverse country contexts. This continuum offers a structured, visual framework that supports a shared understanding of housing needs, solutions, and policy environments worldwide.

A key innovation in the Habitat for Humanity’s Global Housing Continuum is the introduction of a distinct “Incremental housing” category. In many low‑ and middle‑income countries, the most common and impactful pathway to adequate shelter is not new construction but the incremental improvement of existing informal or substandard housing. By explicitly recognizing this reality, the continuum ensures that policy options address both new housing supply and the upgrading of the homes where millions of families already live. Importantly, the Global Housing Continuum is a flexible framework that can and should be adapted to different national and local contexts. It could help capture overlooked realities, however it is important to recognise accurate pathways that enable policymakers and practitioners to identify practical entry points for safer construction, improved resource efficiency, stronger climate resilience, and expanded access to finance and services for households often excluded from formal construction schemes.The Global Housing Continuum distinguishes between homelessness, transitional housing, incremental housing, public and social housing,  and market housing (Please see Figure 2 below). This structure  helps policymakers, practitioners, and financiers identify housing needs,  system gaps, and appropriate policy and investment responses across different housing tenures and in different contexts. By examining the interaction between affordability and sustainability within each tenure category enables a more precise understanding of context‑specific challenges and supports the development of targeted, effective solutions.

The workshop will discuss how a better integration of answers to the housing affordability crisis with solutions to the global environmental and climate crisis could create synergies and new opportunities for investments, especially in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. 

The workshop objectives are:

1. Build a shared understanding of how environmental sustainability, climate resilience, affordability, social inclusion and cultural adequacy intersect across different housing segments: How can the social and environmental benefits of construction and renovation make adequate and climate-proof housing more affordable in the different housing segments over the full life-cycle of buildings?

2. Identify possible systemic gaps, risks, and missed opportunities where housing, climate, and finance policies remain misaligned.

3. Formulate proposals and recommendations for practical steps – for new institutional arrangements, urban design approaches, financing and application of specific technical measures (building materials, standards, passive design and other) that can inform national and subnational housing strategies, climate commitments (e.g. NDCs, adaptation plans), and housing-related investment priorities.

• Geneva UN Charter on Sustainable Housing (2015)
• WHO Housing and Health Guidelines (2018)
• UNECE Ministerial commitments on housing sustainability and affordability (2025)
• Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Working Group on Adequate Housing for All 
• Belem Call for Action for Sustainable and Affordable Housing
• Déclaration de Chaillot
•  #Housing2030: Effective Policies for Affordable Housing in the UNECE Region 
• HFHI Draft Global Housing Continuum framework

Per housing segment we expect a clear overview of practical delivery mechanisms, institutional arrangements, and design approaches that can inform national housing strategies, climate commitments (e.g. NDCs, adaptation plans), and housing-related investment priorities e.g. on a poster per segment. This is the basis for the future cooperation among the partners to promote affordable and sustainable housing worldwide.