Author: Perun Prodanović
On Tuesday, November 10, 2026, the official theme at COP31 in Antalya was Energy and Transport, which focused heavily on global electrification pledges, clean energy deployment, and modernizing grid infrastructure. At the Nordic Pavilion, the programming aligned with this daily focus by looking at the deep energy and emissions intersection within the built environment. The morning discussions highlighted that achieving clean energy networks requires a massive shift in how we manage the energy intensity and embedded carbon within our existing urban architecture, framing our current cities not as passive liabilities, but as strategic resources for the green transition. To drive this home, a panel ran from 11:30 to 12:15 (TRT) titled “Unlocking the Value of Existing Buildings: A Strategic Resource for the Green Transition.” Organized by the Nordic Council of Ministers and spearheaded by the Secretariat for Nordic Sustainable Construction, the session served as a launchpad for a catalogue detailing 34 actionable policy recommendations and regional case studies.
The panel was structured to combine scientific research and European policy tracking where the only thing really missing was real-world manufacturing perspectives. Nevertheless, each speaker first grounded the conversation in their own area of specialization. Matti Kuittinen brought an academic and lifecycle analysis lens, detailing the physics of embodied carbon and how raw material extraction compromises immediate climate goals. Oliver Rapf spoke from a high-level policy perspective, detailing how European directives on energy performance must evolve to prioritize retrofits over new builds, while Sune Tobias Grollov grounded the discussion in industrial realities, explaining how supply chains and manufacturers must adapt to provide long-lasting, circular building components.
After establishing these specialized vantage points, the panelists transitioned into a broader discussion, which vaguely touched upon the five strategic pillars mentioned in the introduction that explained how to systematically overhaul how cities approach existing infrastructure. First, they emphasized that municipalities must better audit their urban stock by deploying digital building logbooks and material passports to track vacant spaces and embedded materials. They also argued for shifting municipal budgets and public procurement rules away from new landmark developments and toward the continuous, high-efficiency maintenance of older properties.
The remaining focus areas targeted bureaucratic and physical structural flexibility. The panel detailed methods for overhauling rigid local zoning codes into flexible “adaptive reuse” frameworks, enabling developers to rapidly transition commercial office spaces into high-efficiency residential housing without multi-year delays. Lastly, the session turned to the mechanics of the retrofits themselves, arguing that current renovations must utilize “design for deconstruction” principles. By installing modular systems that can be easily unbolted and salvaged decades down the line, cities can ensure that today’s energy retrofits do not create future waste management crises.
The panel concluded with a Q&A, where the first question pushed the panel to explain how the Nordic region is adapting its structural standards for increasingly severe winters. The panelists revealed that their long-term architectural planning is actively factoring in the weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, preparing for the reality that localized maritime currents are shifting toward a colder baseline. Highlighting the severity of this shift, Matti Kuittinen stated, ” We are expecting regional winter temperatures to drop up to 20 degrees in the coming decades.”
The second question addressed regional demographics, asking how governments can revitalize rural communities given current projections that 70% of the global population will reside in urban centers by the year 2100. While the panel generally agreed that governments should deploy financial incentives and infrastructure investments to entice people to remain in smaller towns, Kuittinen offered a pragmatic counter-perspective. He noted that while he deeply values rural heritage, he does not believe it is entirely worthwhile to allocate a massive portion of limited climate budgets to fight an inevitable demographic tide.
Ultimately, this session was valuable because it showed real-world implementation rules. However, while the session put exceptional, forward-thinking theory on display, it did suffer from a slight lack of concrete, real-world examples to show how these concepts are operating on the ground. Despite this gap, it successfully proved that protecting our current urban infrastructure is the only way to withstand massive demographic shifts and severe climate anomalies like a cooling Gulf Stream.
Photo credits: Perun Prodanović and Marko Macura
