Climate change and social inequality are two of the most pressing challenges of our time. Buildings and construction contribute 37% of global energy-related carbon emissions, and cities are often where people experience the greatest socio-economic inequalities and the most severe impacts of climate change. These are global issues: complex, systemic, and entangled, and both must be addressed. Ever-more frequent extreme weather events are disproportionately affecting vulnerable families in inadequate housing, and marginalised communities are losing their jobs when f inite resources dry up. This fuels global instability and polarisation, with negative consequences for governments, businesses, people, and the planet. Around the world, the past ten years have seen an increase in green policies and funding across all sectors. Global investment in the energy efficiency of buildings alone has reached US $285 billion in 2022, but climate action, like any other intervention, is not neutral. Efforts to address the climate crisis affect people differently depending on existing power structures, often rooted in historical, structural inequality. This two-year research project by IHRB investigates the human rights impacts of built environment decarbonisation policies, such as renovation programmes, retrofit subsidies, or new energy-efficient buildings, focusing on the right to housing, construction worker rights, meaningful participation, and spatial justice. The research is grounded in eight city case studies: Lagos (Nigeria), Prague (Czechia), Lisbon (Portugal), Melbourne (Australia), Copenhagen (Denmark), Jakarta (Indonesia), Athens (Greece), and Valparaíso (Chile). Investigating a diverse range of contexts uncovered how the dual global challenge of climate change and inequality is being tackled in different parts of the world, each with its own unique national, political, economic, and social context. The f indings and recommendations for each city are available in dedicated reports available on the IHRB website. This study uncovered inspiring examples of governments, businesses, and other actors making homes greener and more affordable or working with marginalised communities to shape climate policies. However, it also uncovered worrying trends that must be addressed, such as renovations leading to evictions (renovictions) and green investment displacing communities (green gentrification). Across the four European cities, communities that are being left behind are pushing back against green initiatives, including in Athens, where these are nascent. As a result, some policymakers are backtracking on their climate commitments, with disastrous consequences for the planet and for those same communities who are often at the frontlines of the climate crisis. In Valparaiso, Jakarta, Athens, and Lagos, built environment decarbonisation policies are only beginning to translate into practice. Here, businesses and government leaders have a unique opportunity to learn from the experiences (and from the mistakes) of other cities and prioritise human rights principles when developing climate initiatives. An inclusive, participatory, and fair process helps legitimise shared goals, broaden support, and ultimately accelerate the transition. Across all eight cities, there is a clear case for putting people first to unlock and accelerate climate action in the built environment. The scale of the challenge requires systemic socio economic transformations. To identify these, the project brought together representatives from governments, businesses, academia, NGOs, trade unions, tenants and other civil society organisations in each city to develop visions for a just transition. While each vision was unique, they all entailed a desire to respect human rights and the planet: two inseparable, mutually dependent outcomes. Decarbonisation does not conflict with reducing inequality; quite the contrary, the two can only be done in tandem. Equity and decarbonisation are not mutually exclusive, but mutually reinforcing processes.