The $90 trillion set to be invested in infrastructure over the next 15 years will be crucial to the drive for greener economic growth under the Paris Agreement, the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate concludes in a study released this week.
“We have agreed a global climate agenda, now we should act on it,” said Commission Chair Felipe Calderón, the former president of Mexico. “Investing in sustainable infrastructure is the wisest decision we can take for our future.”
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The study projected investments in energy systems, public transport, buildings, water, and sanitation, as well as “natural infrastructure” like forests and wetlands, through 2030, concluding that “investment needs will rise partly because of a rising global population,” Reuters reports. “A billion more people will live in urban areas by 2030, roughly the equivalent of building a city the size of Washington every month.”
The Commission’s investment tally for the 15-year span is “slightly bigger than the World Bank’s estimate of global gross domestic product of $73 trillion for 2015,” the news agency notes.
To help find the money for green infrastructure investments, the Commission recommends phasing out fossil fuel subsidies it estimated at $550 billion for 2014.
