Riyadh’s Red Palace

The Red Palace front view, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
The Red Palace front view, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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Riyadh’s Red Palace

The Red Palace front view, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
The Red Palace front view, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Showcasing iconic architecture and storing slices of history, the Red Palace museum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is considered a national landmark.

From March 13 to April 20, for two days a week, the palace is slated to display to visitors a number of possessions belonging to Saudi kings.

With King Abdulaziz, founder of Saudi Arabia, ordering the palace’s renovation in 1942 by his son, King Saud of Saudi Arabia, the building is nearly 80 years old today.

Soon after, the Red Palace’s doors were open to visitors, offering on display some of the Kingdom’s most treasured historical and archaeological artifacts. Beyond keeping log of national events and preserving relics, the building itself is Riyadh’s first-ever cement-built structure.

Until 1988, the Red Palace served as the headquarters of the Saudi Council of Ministers. The 16-wing architectural masterpiece is named after its apparent color.

Within its corridors, historic decisions were made, such as severing ties with France and Britain in 1956, stopping oil exports, and other stances that had global impact.

It also hosted several kings and heads of state and government, notably Gamal Abdel Nasser, Shukri al-Quwatli, Anwar Sadat, Jawaharlal Nehru and others.

Abdulla Al-Yami, author of “The Red Palace", says that the palace has electrical elevators and staircases that connect its floors which feature exceptional interior design and unique skeletal engravings.

The structure is also dotted with balconies that overlook breathtaking greenspaces.

In terms of design, Yami said the Red Palace is a genius work of architecture in terms of space distribution, unique design and meticulous execution. Its wings include sophisticated technologies and ceiling fans, as well as a rare skylight scheme.



‘More and Faster’: UN Calls to Shrink Buildings’ Carbon Footprint

 Snow capped mountains are seen behind the downtown Los Angeles skyline, California, US, March 7, 2025. (Reuters)
Snow capped mountains are seen behind the downtown Los Angeles skyline, California, US, March 7, 2025. (Reuters)
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‘More and Faster’: UN Calls to Shrink Buildings’ Carbon Footprint

 Snow capped mountains are seen behind the downtown Los Angeles skyline, California, US, March 7, 2025. (Reuters)
Snow capped mountains are seen behind the downtown Los Angeles skyline, California, US, March 7, 2025. (Reuters)

Countries must move rapidly to slash CO2 emissions from homes, offices, shops and other buildings -- a sector that accounts for a third of global greenhouse gas pollution, the United Nations said Monday.

Carbon dioxide emissions from the building sector rose around five percent in the last decade when they should have fallen 28 percent, according to a new report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

It said emissions had plateaued since 2023 as climate policies began to have an impact, particularly green building standards, the use of renewable energy and electrified heating and cooling.

But the building sector still consumes 32 percent of the world's energy and contributes 34 percent of CO2 emissions, the report found.

"The buildings where we work, shop and live account for a third of global emissions and a third of global waste," said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.

"The good news is that government actions are working. But we must do more and do it faster."

She called on nations to include targets to "rapidly cut emissions from buildings and construction" in their climate plans.

The report said that while most of the countries that signed up to the 2015 Paris climate deal -- nearly 200 have signed -- mention the sector, so far only 19 countries have sufficiently detailed goals in their national carbon cutting plans.

The report said that as of 2023, important metrics like energy-related emissions and the adoption of renewable energy "remain well below required progress rates".

That means that countries, businesses and homeowners now need to dramatically pick up the pace to meet the 2030 emissions reduction targets.

- 'Critical challenge' -

Direct and indirect CO2 emissions will now need to fall more than 10 percent per year, more than double the originally envisaged pace.

The rollout of renewables is a similar story.

The share of renewables like solar and wind in final energy consumption rose by only 4.5 percentage points since 2015, well behind the goal of nearly 18 percentage points.

That now needs to accelerate by a factor of seven to meet this decade's goal of tripling renewable energy use worldwide, UNEP said.

The report urged countries to accelerate the roll-out of renewable technologies and increase the share of renewables in the final energy mix to 46 percent by 2030 -- a rise of around 18 percent.

It also called on policymakers to increase energy efficiency retrofits to include better design, insulation and the use of renewables and heat pumps.

More work also needs to be done to improve the sustainability of materials like steel and cement, whose manufacture accounts for nearly a fifth of all emissions from the building sector.

But the report did say that circular construction practices were increasing in some areas, with recycled materials accounting for 18 percent of construction inputs in Europe.

The authors urged all major greenhouse gas emitters to take action by introducing zero-carbon building energy codes by 2028, and called on other countries to create and tighten their regulations within the next 10 years.

The report highlighted positive national policies from China, France, Germany, Mexico and South Africa among others.

But it said financing remained a "critical challenge".

In 2023, it found that global investment in energy efficiency in buildings fell seven percent from a year earlier to $270 billion, driven by higher borrowing costs and the winding back of government support programs, notably in Europe.

Those investments now need to double -- to $522 billion -- by 2030, it said.