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Cities globally are at the frontline of two urgent and interconnected crises: affordable housing and climate breakdown. While these challenges are often portrayed as being in conflict, climate-aligned policy changes can accelerate the supply of affordable housing, deliver cost savings for cities and residents and create better-quality homes, and unlock a host of other benefits.

This resource offers city officials and the wider public a powerful reframing of this challenge, moving beyond the perceived tension between climate action and affordability by demonstrating how two frameworks – the human right to adequate housing and the principles of clean construction – are mutually reinforcing solutions.

The paper illustrates how housing rights – through concepts like progressive realisation, maximum available resources, and meaningful participation – can help strengthen the social outcomes of clean construction. At the same time, clean construction principles, such as prioritising existing assets, using low-carbon materials efficiently, and planning for climate resiliency, can help to ground the right to housing in practical applications with environmental benefits.

By integrating these approaches, the resource shows how cities can accelerate the delivery of housing that is not only sustainable and low emission but also genuinely affordable, equitable, and secure.

Accelerating sustainable and affordable housing

The resource provides actionable guidance and inspiring best-practice examples from cities like Vancouver, New York, Kuala Lumpur, Bogotá, Curitiba, Los Angeles, and Barcelona, proving that integrated approaches are viable and effective.

It highlights a clear pathway for cities to treat housing as vital infrastructure. By combining equity with climate actions, city governments can deploy the regulations, incentives, and convening power they have in order to speed up the access and delivery of affordable, sustainable, and decent homes.

This resource was developed by The Shift and C40 Cities.