This report considers the complexities that underpin efforts to attract investment into sustainable infrastructure with a focus on project preparation. It reflects on experiences with project preparation support for infrastructure and potential shifts in approach needed to deliver the scale of investment required in sustainable infrastructure to achieve the SDGs and fulfil the goals of the Paris Agreement. 

After the Paris agreement, many countries are looking to scale their investment in infrastructure that is socially inclusive, low carbon, and climate resilient. The huge quantity of investment required means that establishing the right conditions to attract private-sector investment is critical. In this paper by the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, the authors highlight the major barriers that must be overcome and the ways to encourage more capital investment in sustainable infrastructure. The paper determines that a “muscular set of nudges and risk-sharing instruments are required”. 

Ethiopia has recognised the critical role that well-managed urbanisation will play in realising its ambition to achieve middle income status by 2025. Given the extended lifecycle of urban infrastructure, a small number of key decisions over the next five years will shape and lock in Ethiopia’s urban future for many decades to come. 

This report finds that growth strategies which fail to tackle poverty or climate change will prove to be unsustainable, and vice versa. A common denominator to the success of both agendas is infrastructure development. 

The costs of fossil fuel subsidies far outweigh the benefits when considering the full economic, social, and environmental impact of these subsidies in sub-Saharan Africa. If done right, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies in sub-Saharan Africa will lower greenhouse gas emissions, reduce air pollution, and create the fiscal space to provide access to energy and meet social development objectives. 

What happens to clean infrastructure finance when countries are big and fast-growing but have immature financial systems and a scarcity of long-term domestic investors? The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) compares two different financing models from middle income countries: the highly centralized model of Brazil and the decentralized model from India. 

Greater energy efficiency can benefit countries at all stages of development, but particularly fast-growing economies trying to achieve universal energy access with limited resources. By offering cost-effective opportunities to avoid new energy supply, energy efficiency is increasingly recognised as the “first fuel”. 

About US$90 trillion in infrastructure investment is needed globally by 2030 to achieve global growth expectations, particularly in developing countries. To achieve this, infrastructure investment needs to be both scaled up and climate objectives need to be integrated due to climate risks. The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate recommends that G20 and other countries adopt key principles ensuring the integration of climate risk and climate objectives in national infrastructure policies and plans. 

Most sub-Saharan households cook using traditional biomass stoves, and 200 million more will do so by 2020. For maximum health and environmental benefits, policymakers in sub-Saharan Africa should aim to transform their countries’ cookstove markets to drive a large-scale shift from traditional biomass to stoves using clean fuels or electricity.  

The report recommends that parties to the Montreal Protocol approve an amendment to phase down the production and use of HFCs. In addition, countries that are not already working to phase down HFCs should begin developing and implementing domestic regulations to do so, while also increasing their appliance energy efficiency standards. Incorporating HFC production and consumption into the Montreal Protocol would provide significant near-term gains to slow climate change and could lead to avoiding 1.1–1.7 GtCO2e of annual GHG emissions per year by 2030.