The G20 Infrastructure Working Group meeting took place from January 20 to 21, with the theme, “Recover Together, Recover Stronger” under the Presidency of Indonesia. The agenda was to discuss about the recovery of the world economy after COVID-19 through the development of quality infrastructure.
The working meetings covered the following six topics:
1) Private sector participation in sustainable infrastructure investment (first day);
2) Social inclusion and sub-national disparities (first day);
3) InfraTech (first day);
4) Transformative infrastructure (second day);
5) Governance (second day); and
6) Quality Infrastructure Investment indicators (second day).
The working meetings were split into four main sessions, starting with a presentation by the secretariat of the Sustainable Finance Working Group.
The Global Infrastructure Hub highlighted the state of sustainable infrastructure investment and private sector engagement in the second session, which explored investment patterns and concerns linked to private sector participation in sustainable infrastructure investment.
The third session, delivered by EDHEC, GRESB, FAST-Infra, Coalition for Climate Resilient Infrastructure, and ICP, focused on “Private sector engagement in scaling up sustainable infrastructure investment, especially through Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards.”
Meridiam, I-Squared, SMBC, and the China-Africa Development Fund provided private investor perspectives on the gap in scaling up sustainable infrastructure investing at the fourth session.
Challenges discussed included fragmentations within the investment community, incentives, etc. Other issues included challenges stemming from resource requirements for building renewable energy facilities and financing.
This session invited a broader discussion on what the government can do to increase enthusiasm for ESG investing and what influence may be generated at the G20 level.
The seminar’s last session focused on nations’ perspectives on sustainable infrastructure investment and private sector engagement, and it finished with a Q&A session among IWG members.
The IWG co-chairs from Australia and Brazil moderated the discussion, analysed the topics, and identified future actions and concerns for the Indonesian Presidency’s First Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, which would be held in Jakarta next month.
Terra Link Research 