The world is changing, and collectively we are unprepared for the challenges ahead. The ‘polycrisis’ of unprecedented economic, social, and climate challenges is the new normal, and we need new solutions.
In the infrastructure sector, this means embracing technology at scale – something the industry has never done before. New technologies are needed to deliver more with less investment, and to achieve sustainable development and climate goals. These are urgent needs. We face a USD3 trillion annual investment gap for infrastructure, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that 35% of the cumulative CO2 emissions reductions projected for 2070 will come from technologies that are currently at the prototype or demonstration phase, and will not become available at scale without further investment into R&D and commercial demonstrations.
These high-level challenges are agreed within the industry. In late 2019, the Global Infrastructure Hub (GI Hub) conducted a survey of over 400 infrastructure practitioners globally, revealing that the issues the industry felt least prepared to deal with were sustainability and geopolitical challenges such as the rise of climate change, natural disasters, and increased social inequality. The survey results also showed that technology-related trends, or InfraTech (specifically the rise of the Internet of Things, sensors, and smart infrastructure), were perceived to have the highest impact on the industry.
Although we have not repeated this survey, our extensive and ongoing discussions across the public and private sectors in infrastructure indicate that InfraTech continues to be recognised as a priority opportunity to advance sustainable development goals and the climate transition.
In response to the potential impact of InfraTech, the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors endorsed the Riyadh InfraTech Agenda, which aims to promote the wider adoption of technology in infrastructure. The GI Hub continues to work on initiatives that support the agenda and the broad advancement of InfraTech.
What is the definition of InfraTech?
Shorthand for ‘Infrastructure Technology’, InfraTech is defined as digital and non-digital technologies that, when applied at some point in the infrastructure lifecycle, enable step-change improvements in economic, social, or environmental outcomes. The term was first used by the GI Hub under the Saudi Arabian G20 presidency to highlight the important role that technology can play across the infrastructure lifecycle in supporting countries to respond to crises, close the infrastructure investment gap, strengthen resilience, and spur economic growth.
InfraTech solutions can be complex, such as digital platforms that combine multiple technologies to support improved decisionmaking, or simple, such as innovative new materials that support decarbonisation. What is common across all InfraTech solutions is that they play a role in delivering an improved outcome. This could be for a customer, such as smart water meters at home to increase access to clean water, or for an operator, such as the remote monitoring of hazardous locations instead of in-person inspections to keep employees safe.
At the GI Hub, we consider InfraTech from an outcome perspective to help policymakers, asset owners, and operators identify solutions that could support them to meet their objectives. Outcomes that can be realised through infrastructure include:
- Improving the efficiency of infrastructure investment and reducing cost overruns
- Enabling infrastructure to decarbonise and transition to net-zero
- Creating social value through infrastructure
- Improving the whole-life resilience of assets and systems.
InfraTech's impact in a post-COVID world
Technology in infrastructure was already a key industry trend pre-COVID, but now it has taken on a more profound purpose: to ensure the continued operation of critical infrastructure in the event of future crises, particularly the climate crisis and the current economic pressures faced by advanced, developing, and emerging economies. No longer a ‘nice to have’, InfraTech is now critical for delivering sustainable and resilient infrastructure.
In this context, the potential impacts of adopting InfraTech include:
- Attracting and mobilising more private capital into infrastructure. InfraTech often reduces overall project risk by providing data and analytics for better, more informed decisions across the value chain. As risks and costs, are reduced or better quantified, infrastructure investment becomes more attractive to private capital, helping reduce the burden on government budgets.
- Enabling industry and governments to do more with less. InfraTech not only has the potential to attract private capital to assets, but also enables cost-effective upgrades of existing infrastructure, extends asset life, and defers costly asset maintenance and renewals.
- Making infrastructure more resilient to climate change. By using data and analytics to automate, monitor, and optimise operations, resilience is built into the provision of infrastructure services, allowing them to operate without disruption, even during extreme weather events.
Barriers to InfraTech
Recently the GI Hub undertook a series of interviews with governments, investors, contractors, operators, technology firms, and advisors globally to identify areas of reform that could accelerate the rate of technology adoption in infrastructure, with a view to achieving the potential for economic efficiencies. These interviews identified the following barriers to greater InfraTech adoption.
Figure 1
Figure 1: Barriers to InfraTech adoption, based on interviews with global governments, investors, contractors, operators, technology firms, and advisors
How we're reducing barriers
The GI Hub is working with industry, the G20, and other stakeholders to address barriers to InfraTech adoption. Our key focuses are helping drive investment in InfraTech and facilitating technology transfer between developed and emerging markets.
Our work on this consists of:
- Defining and implementing a blueprint for scaling up InfraTech: Working with the G20, we defined a blueprint for scaling up the adoption of InfraTech globally, and are working on implementation of elements of this blueprint through strategic partnerships.
- Programs to advance the adoption of InfraTech. Through programs like our Call for Submissions for Sustainable Road Solutions and our InfraChallenge, we’re helping remove barriers to InfraTech adoption in advanced and emerging economies.
- Building an open-access, global InfraTech Knowledge Hub: We are creating and curating resources that help bridge the data and knowledge gap around InfraTech and provide equitable access to data, knowledge and effective practice to accelerate InfraTech adoption. We are also currently developing an InfraTech data tool for decisionmakers that will launch in 2024.
You can find all our work on our InfraTech website, as well as ways to participate and share your InfraTech solutions and case studies.
Infrastructure Technology (InfraTech)
