Attributes and Framework for Sustainable Infrastructure

Sustainable Infrastructure (SI) is now recognized as an essential foundation to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth, deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and meet the targets of the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The world needs to ramp up investments in sustainable infrastructure to tackle large deficits in infrastructure services especially in emerging markets and developing countries, respond to the structural changes that are underway —especially urbanization—, and accelerate the replacement of aging and polluting infrastructure. Altogether, around $90 trillion of infrastructure investment is needed worldwide between 2015 and 2030, which exceeds the current capital stock (NCE 2016). With that scale of required investment and the short window to arrest climate change, we cannot afford to lock-in polluting technologies and inefficient capital (IPCC 2018).