International Expert Meeting on Sustainable Infrastructure

On 22-23 October 2018, Fujian Normal University’s School of Economics and UN Environment will host an International Expert Meeting on Sustainable Infrastructure in Fuzhou, China. The meeting is co-organized by the UN Environment-Tongji University Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development, the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning, and the University of Geneva.

Background

Infrastructure is central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is included in SDG 9, but underlies all of the other socio-economic SDGs. At the same time, the choices that we make about the types of infrastructure we build, where we build it, and how it is designed, constructed, and operated will affect the environmental SDGs including climate actions.

For infrastructure to contribute to socio-economic SDGs without undermining environmental SDGs, it is essential to adopt an integrated approach to its planning and implementation. Yet, most countries tend to follow a siloed approach. In doing so they miss the opportunity for maximizing synergies and minimizing trade-offs among the economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainability.

Objectives

This meeting will further validate the centrality of infrastructure in delivering the SDGs, raise the visibility of this link, and take forward the idea of an integrated approach to infrastructure. Participants will discuss the meaning of - and the need for - an integrated approach, examine the reality of infrastructure governance in different national contexts, share good practices and knowledge, and identify the building blocks for a potential voluntary code of conduct on sustainable infrastructure. These discussions will help to shape UN Environment’s future work on sustainable infrastructure.

By building a network of experts on integrated approaches to infrastructure, the meeting is also expected to generate momentum towards the formalization of a planned Geneva Forum for Sustainable Infrastructure that is being led jointly by UN Environment and the University of Geneva.

Finally, taking advantage of experts’ presence, the meeting will also launch a Global Environment Facility (GEF) project on sustainable infrastructure. It will include a discussion of methodologies for assessing the sustainability implications of infrastructure development in the context of multilateral environmental agreements.

Main Themes

1. Infrastructure and the SDGs

This session will place infrastructure in the context of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Specifically, it will illustrate the fundamental linkages between infrastructure and the SDGs, and by extension the related UN Environment work such as Sustainable Consumption and Production, Circular Economy, Life Cycle Analysis, Waste and Pollution, Cities, among others. The session’s objective is for the experts to validate infrastructure’s centrality in delivering the SDGs.

2. An integrated approach to infrastructure development

This session will discuss the meaning of an integrated approach to infrastructure. It will answer the question of what is to be integrated, why it is important to integrate and, crucially, how this is to be done, including the relevant tools, associated challenges and ways to deal with them. The objective is for the experts to agree on the major building blocks – to be developed further in future - of an integrated approach to infrastructure development and investment.

3. Institutional arrangements

This session will share experiences in institutional arrangements/governance for an integrated approach to infrastructure. On that basis, the session will also identify some of the common features that support an integrated approach while addressing the challenges of institutional capacity. The objective is for the experts to outline key components of a model institutional arrangement adaptable to different circumstances.

4. UN Environment’s GEF-funded project on sustainable infrastructure investment

This session will introduce UN Environment’s GEF-funded project, Aligning the Financial System and Infrastructure Investments with Sustainable Development – a Transformational Approach, and gather ideas of how to implement it from an integrated perspective. In addition, the session will discuss the analytical tools that can potentially be useful for conducting the required analysis.

This meeting follows the Forum on Sustainable Infrastructure, convened by UN Environment, the University of Geneva, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and the World Wide Fund for Nature in March 2018, where investors, national stakeholders, and international institutions shared experiences, tools, and approaches to making infrastructure contribute to the SDGs. The Forum agreed on a number of priorities, one of which being the promotion of an integrated approach to infrastructure.

A summary of the meeting can be found here.

For further information, please contact Mr.Rowan Palmer (rowan.palmer@un.org).