Climate Change and the Crucial Role of Low-Carbon Infrastructure

The World Bank article “Low-carbon Infrastructure: An Essential Solution to Climate Change” explains the contribution of infrastructure to carbon emissions.

According to the report, infrastructure emissions from power plants, buildings, and transport account for global GHG emissions.  One of the possible consequences of these emissions will be that 720 million people will be pushed into poverty in 2050, the Overseas Development Institute approximates.

According to the WHO report (Saha, 2018), deaths from emissions from key infrastructure industries will increase from 150,000 per year to 250,000 by 2030.

Low-carbon emissions are the key to preventing further damage to the environment and people.

Examples of low-carbon emissions are railway infrastructure, which reduces the number of carbon-emitting trucks, urban transport projects that lower car usage, and renewable energy projects like solar, wind, and hydropower.

According to the article, there are also emerging trends in low-carbon infrastructure, particularly after 2010. Government support for low-carbon projects grew from 3% before 2010 to 51% afterwards.

Most of this low-carbon infrastructure surge comes from renewable, climate-friendly transport projects. After 2010, the share of renewable energy projects increased from around 50% to 85%.

As renewable energy is the symbol for low-carbon infrastructure, huge emitters like China, India, Brazil, Turkey and Romania are starting to include renewable sources into their energy mix.

The article says that the private sector invests more in renewables than governments, which surprisingly continue to invest in conventional energy.

The government and private sectors must intensify their climate mitigation efforts to meet the global temperature rise of 2 degrees by 2050 (Saha, 2018).

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