India is experiencing an urban transformation. Given the rapidity of change and the long-lived nature of urban form and infrastructure, the decisions that India’s policymakers take in the next 5–15 years will lock in its urban pathway for decades to come. 

This paper provides a review of how compact, connected, and coordinated cities can help generate stronger growth, create jobs, alleviate poverty, and significantly reduce the cost of providing services and infrastructure. 

Investing in sustainable infrastructure is key to tackling the three central challenges facing the global community: reigniting growth, delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals, and reducing climate risk in line with the Paris Agreement. Transformative change is needed now in how we build our cities, produce and use energy, transport people and goods, and manage our landscapes. And the challenge is urgent. 

The renewable energy sector in India will require $189 billion in additional investment to meet its goal of 175GW by 2022. Institutional investors have the potential to bridge this gap. This report finds that the potential for renewable energy investment in India is more than double the required amount, but the expected level falls short. Domestic and international investors have the greatest potential to address this but require a greater understanding of India’s renewable energy sector to better facilitate investment.

In urban infrastructure the investment decisions taken today will shape tomorrow. Despite the critical importance of infrastructure for urban development, financing to scale up smarter, more sustainable urban infrastructure remains an immense challenge, particularly in emerging and developing economies. 

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”. 

This paper examines the challenges and opportunities for investing in agriculture and natural resources management, with the goal of laying out next steps toward more efficient and sustainable land use in Mozambique. 

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. While evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of each model, the paper finds both countries end up with public financing dominating clean infrastructure projects with similar levels of leverage in both. 

After several years at high levels, oil prices dropped by more than half between June 2014 and January 2015, leading many to ask questions about the implications for the economy and for countries’ and companies’ energy choices. Although such price swings have happened before, the issues being discussed are indeed quite important.