Future proofing infrastructure to address the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises

Businesses can benefit substantially from climate-proofing infrastructure through reduced risks, lower costs, fewer stranded assets and new market opportunities, such as enabling diverse local industries.The brief reviews the impacts of climate change on infrastructure and the impacts of infrastructure on society and the environment (in particular, biodiversity loss and pollution). It focuses on the scope and scale of projected infrastructure investment to 2050, including the questions over how this can be delivered in line with the environmental dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals and a move towards nature-based solutions. It also provides guidance on how businesses that build public or private infrastructure can increase their resilience and drive innovation in the future. Building on this brief’s analysis, a roadmap of priority actions that businesses should follow – and the public policy measure that can enable and incentivize them – can be recommended. This will help to operationalize the broader sustainable infrastructure principles and go a long way to transforming our world, as called for in the 2030 Agenda and GEO-6