The report, produced in partnership with the World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group, identifies the top 25 megatrends affecting infrastructure globally.
Drawing on the experience of infrastructure experts, we surveyed more than 400 industry leaders in order to identify these megatrends and the impact they are likely to have on infrastructure development through to 2050.
“As the world grapples with unprecedented social and economic upheaval, it’s never been more important that we work collectively to understand and prepare for future disruptions to our industry,” said Marie Lam-Frendo, CEO of the Global Infrastructure Hub.
Drawing on these insights, we created three future scenarios that seemed extreme, but plausible, at the time of writing the report. Of course, as the year progresses and the global health crisis continues to unfold, the scenarios we explore have proven to be remarkably prescient. They are:
The Conflicted Planet: A multi-polar, isolated world with limited international cooperation and the rise of national infrastructure champions.
The Digital Planet: A corporate-dominated, highly digitised world where the adoption of technology is hyper-accelerated across all infrastructure sectors.
The Green Planet: A world where sustainability is the new main decision criterion, in which the circular economy reshapes the infrastructure industry.
“This report is intended to provoke thought and spark action amongst government and industry. It’s critically important we understand the impact of trends that are already playing out to various degrees and work to anticipate how these may challenge us in the future.
“There are many things industry leaders can be doing now to mitigate risk down the line. The most important of these is changing the way governments and the private sector work together to create true partnerships to deliver the sustainable projects communities need, not just now, but years into the future,” Ms Lam-Frendo said.
The report calls for infrastructure industry decisionmakers across the public and private sectors to consider, consult and collaborate on several key themes to improve our preparedness for the impacts of megatrends and other global events, such as the COVID-19 crisis. These include:
business models and partnerships
the role of data
workforce planning, and
inclusive infrastructure development.
The Global Infrastructure Hub will be running a series of webinars throughout 2020 to assist the global infrastructure industry to anticipate and respond to future disruptions.
If you would like more information about these events or the Infrastructure Futures report more generally, please feel free to contact us by emailing contact@gihub.org or following our social channels.
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View the Infrastructure Futures Report website
