Transition Pathways for Sustainable Infrastructure / Data

Sustainable infrastructure for the climate transition

The GI Hub has analysed more than 250 infrastructure plans across 25 G20 economies to determine how countries are investing in infrastructure to address climate change and achieve the SDGs. By mapping these economies’ investments to 15 core transition pathways, 12 infrastructure sectors, and 140 infrastructure asset classes, we uncovered the trends that show what infrastructure investments could look like over the next few decades.

How much are governments investing in infrastructure to address climate change and achieve the SDGs?

Average values only include countries that have specified such investment in their plans. Each investment value can be mapped to more than one transition pathway, therefore the sum of all transition pathways is not representative of the total G20 investment.

Transition pathways

Average annual investment

Average annual investment in transition pathways

Investment as (See Note 1):

Average values only include countries that have specified such investment in their plans, therefore specific pathways with small sample sizes may have higher values than sector averages (which benefit from larger sample sizes).

Sector

Average annual investment

Average annual investment in sectors

Investment as (See Note 1):

Average values only include countries that have specified such investment in their plans, therefore specific pathways with small sample sizes may have higher values than sector averages (which benefit from larger sample sizes).

Asset class

Average annual investment

Average annual investment in asset classes

Investment as (See Note 1):

Notes

[1]

Average annual investment as a percentage of a country’s GDP (% of country GDP) measures the average proportion (percentage) of a country’s GDP that is planned for investment in a certain pathway, sector, or asset class. This is used as a normalised unit of measure that is an alternative to average annual investment in USD. It is used so as not to skew investment trends towards larger countries that may have greater fiscal capacity to invest. The measure was calculated by 1) summing (for each country) the average annual investment in USD by transition pathway, sector, or asset class; 2) dividing this value by the respective country’s GDP; and 3) taking the average of all the ‘% of country GDP’ values across all G20 economies.
[2]

Not all G20 economies are planning to invest in each transition pathway, sector, or asset class. Therefore, the average annual investment (% of country GDP) only includes planned investment for countries that have specified such investment in their plans.
[3]

Average annual investment in USD was estimated by dividing each investment as specified in the plans, by the stated duration of the plan in years. Average annual investment in USD (all G20) represents the sum of these investments for all G20 economies across each transition pathway, sector, or asset class.
[4]

Each investment value can be mapped to more than one transition pathway, therefore the sum of all transition pathways is not representative of the total G20 investment.
[5]

Investment is shown in real 2022 USD. % of country GDP was calculated using 2022 GDP values.
[6]

This chart was derived from GI Hub analysis of the infrastructure plans of G20 economies published between January 2010 and June 2022, for infrastructure investment planned to occur between 2015 and 2070. These data will be updated as new plans and data become available.
[7]

G20 economies included in the analysis for this tool are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, EU, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States.
[8]

Data collected and analysed only represent infrastructure investment at the national government level, taken from national government plans and strategies. Investment data from subnational government plans have not been captured.
[9]

The taxonomy used for infrastructure sectors and asset classes was adapted from EDHEC’s ‘The Infrastructure Company Classification Standard’ (TICCS). Additionally, to ensure this data tool represents the contents of G20 long-term infrastructure plans, some traditionally non-infrastructure sectors and asset classes have been included, where these have been specified in the plans. Some examples include energy resource processing and urban development.