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Global Tables on Infrastructure Investment and Financing

At the core of the Digital Global Solutions Summit are Global Tables, each tackling the T20 and G20 agenda as well as generating policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Global Tables are filled with keynotes, discussions, interviews and impulse statements by high-ranking representatives from research, politics, business and civil society.

Improving the wellbeing of billions of people globally depends on building more and better infrastructure, including for transportation, for access to energy and sanitation. This infrastructure build-up must be sustainable, as otherwise, it can have detrimental effects on people and the planet by destroying local livelihoods as much as the climate and ecosystems. Estimates are that additional investments of $15 trillion in infrastructure must be mobilized until 2040 to meet sustainable development goals; leaving critical funding gaps for infrastructure projects in the implementation of the Agenda 2030. The implementation of the G20 Quality Infrastructure agenda and the promotion of infrastructure as an asset class are meant to bridge global infrastructure funding gaps and attract private sector investments in support of sustainable infrastructure projects. As these approaches are vividly debated, latest research on managing the spillover effects of infrastructure projects, in particular in emerging economies, might pave the way for less doctrinal and more practical infrastructure policies, improving the connectivity between global and domestic finance, including private equity. The panel will raise and discuss proposals and solutions to promote a recoupling of private and public finance and accelerate the implementation of sustainable infrastructure, as a common issue for the G20 Sherpa Track and Development Working Group, the Finance Track and the Infrastructure Working Group, and relevant G20 Engagement Groups. It will also discuss how sustainable infrastructure investments can help build a way for the Agenda 2030, including in response to the covid19 and other such pandemic risks.

Haifa Abdulaziz Al Mogrin
Chair, G20 Development Working Group

Raja Almarzoqi
King AbdulAziz University, Saudi Arabia

Panel

Panel

Sachin Chaturvedi
RIS, India

Panel

Lori Kerr
World Bank

 

Carlo Secchi
ISPI, Italy

Naoyuki Yoshino
T20 Co-Chair Japan

Panel

Panel



Panel

Panel

 

Panel

Urbanization and urban demographics are shaping a world both more complex and more unstable, spiraling up with digital transformations and un precedented levels of systemic risks -as illustrated by the covid19 pandemic. While the pivotal role of urbanization for social development and safeguarding the environment has been widely acknowledged since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the Habitat Summits of Istanbul (1996) and Quito (2016), we live with a paradigm of urban and infrastructure development focused on powering growth with new technologies, which falls short of realizing the full transformative potential of urban development. G20 Saudi Arabia offers an unprecedented series of opportunities to change course, initiating a process towards effective multilevel policy-making including cities and metropolises that makes urbanization a driving force for the achievement of the SDGs and inclusive growth. The legacy of the Germany, Argentina and Japan G20 presidencies provides a background of high-level principles on habitat and regional planning (2018), quality infrastructure (2019) and the crossing of the G20 and the Agenda 2030 priorities in an interconnected world (2017-2019). In 2020, as the covid19 pandemic highlights the deep interdependency of nations and cities to achieve prosperity, security and sustainability, the development of the G20 engagement group urbanization, the Urban 20 offers a unique opportunity to build a way forward for the G20 with cities. Ahead of the upcoming COP15 Biodiversity, the panel will connect U20, S20 and T20 agendas to discuss the role of cities & metros to shape a multilevel governance that supports growth and meets the planetary boundaries. Moving from principles to actionable agendas, the panel will explore how to realize the full potential of cities as both locations and agents of sustainable development.

Hazem Galal
Cities and Local Government Global Leader, PwC

Kobie Brand
ICLEI, South Africa

Panel

Nicolas J.A. Buchoud
Grand Paris Alliance
Global Solutions Fellow

Panel

Susan Parnell
University of Bristol, UK

Panel

Moderator: Evan Davis
BBC

Tunç Soyer
Mayor of Izmir, Turkey

Panel

Nicolas J.A. Buchoud
Grand Paris Alliance
Global Solutions Fellow

Panel

 

Panel

Panel

COVID-19 & the Reinforced Case for Sustainable Infrastructure Development: Mobilizing Infrastructure Investments as Catalysts for Net Zero & SDG Delivery
Partner Global Table: Curated and produced by The Solutions Lab – Scaling for Sustainable Infrastructure, a joint initiative by GIZ and the Global Solutions Initiative

The outbreak of the viral COVID-19 pandemic has brutally exposed weaknesses in existing infrastructure systems: “grey infrastructure” expansion and the associated destruction of ecosystems facilitate the spread of zoonotic diseases, whilst excessive reliance on just-in-time transport infrastructure and value chains increases our vulnerability to global shocks. At the same time, sustainable infrastructure is part of any successful response to the crisis: Whilst in the short-term, investments in infrastructure are critical to economic recovery and job creation, the delivery of key public services from health infrastructure to water and sanitation facilities will increase resilience toward pandemics in the long-term. With 75% of all infrastructure predicted to exist by 2050 not yet built, governments must seize the opportunity of stimulus packages to set the world on a zero emissions path toward SDG delivery.

Amar Bhattacharya
The Brookings Institution

Panel

Heike Henn
German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Panel

Panel

Aziza Akhmouch
OECD

Panel

Ryan Bartlett
World Wildlife Fund

Panel

Norbert Gorißen
German Ministry for the Environment

Panel

Tetsushi Sonobe
Asian Development Bank Institute

 

Moderator:
Lori Kerr
Word Bank

Cristina Contreras
Harvard University 
Lorena Zemp 
Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation

Vision Statements

Peter Head
Resilience Brokers

Panel

Vision Statements

Gamelihle Sibanda
International Labor Organization

Panel

Panel

 

 

Policy Recommendations, Policy Briefs and Articles

Policy Briefs on Infrastructure Investment and Financing​

Policy Briefs contain recommendations and visions and cover policy ares that are of interest to G20 policymakers. The majority of the Policy Briefs has been developed by a corresponding T20 Task Force.

T20 Recommendations Report: Infrastructure Investment and Financing

Compiled by Juliane Stein-Zalai (IfW Kiel) and Simon Wolf (Global Solutions Initiative)

Building the Future of Quality Infrastructure

By Asian Development Bank Institute with contributions from Beatriz Nofal

Are Slums More Vulnerable to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Mumbai

By Shaonlee Patranabis, Sahil Gandhi, and Vaidehi Tande (Brookings)

Infrastructure for Growth Post COVID-19

By Alberto Belladonna (ISPI) and Alessandro Gili (ISPI)

Making the case for G20 action on urbanization – Global Solutions Journal

Contributions by the Young Global Changers

Related Projects by the 2020 YGCs

Ninety young people from around the world were selected to participate in the Global Solutions Summit as Young Global Changers. These young changemakers from academica, business and civil society will contribute and debate in their various working groups on the Summit topics. Find out more about their projects!

Explore the Digital Global Solutions Summit 2020

You can navigate to content related to the Global Solutions Summit here. Discover the T20 agenda, an overview of all Global Tables, meet the speakers and read the latest issue of the Global Solutions Journal. Also navigate to the G20 Insights Platform offers policy proposals to the G20: The Policy Briefs, produced by Task Forces from the Think20 (T20) Group and other sources, are clustered in policy areas and describe either recommendations or visions.

Themes

Sessions focus on the G20 and T20 agenda and also address the political response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Underlying all topics is the narrative on Recoupling.

Overview »

Program

Global Tables shape the program of this Summit. With a specific focus within a topic area they consist of keynotes and panel discussions, supplemented by vision statements. Participants are invited to contribute to the contents. 

All Global Tables »

Speakers

The Global Solutions Summit is a meeting of global problem solvers, including thought leaders and decision-makers from research, politics, business and civil society.

All Speakers »

Journal

The Journal for this Summit provides a bridge between visions, recommend­ations and action. Find articles from academics as well as from implementers.

Previous issues »

Policy Briefs

The G20 Insights Platform offers policy proposals to the G20. It is  an initiative of the T20 Engagement Group. 

G20 Insights »

Any Questions?

If you have any questions about the Digital Global Solutions Summit 2020 and its program, please contact us at contact@global-solutions-initiative.org.

As a media representative please contact press@global-solutions-initiative.org for more information. Please also note our press kitpress releases and comments published on the Digital Global Solutions Summit 2020.

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