Ontario Construction News staff
G7 leaders including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have agreed to roll out a global infrastructure initiative that they say will improve conditions in developing and middle-income countries around the world and create opportunities at home.
“Together with G7 partners, we aim to mobilize $600 billion by 2027 in global infrastructure investments,” the White House said in a statement. “And this will only be the beginning. The United States and its G7 partners will seek to mobilize additional capital from other like-minded partners, multilateral development banks, development finance institutions, sovereign wealth funds, and more,” U.S. President Joe Biden said at a news conference.
The Partnership for Global Infrastructure will distribute $600 billion by 2027 in infrastructure investments, including $200 billion from the U.S. in public and private partnerships.
Supporters are calling the investments “critical” amid crises on multiple fronts, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and an energy crunch fueled in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“These strategic investments are in areas critical to sustainable development and to our shared global stability: health and health security, digital connectivity, gender equality and equity, climate and energy security,” Biden said.
“We need a worldwide effort to invest in transformative clean energy projects to ensure that critical infrastructures resilient to changing climate. Critical materials that are necessary for clean energy transition, including production of batteries, need to be developed with high standards for labor and environment,” he added.
The strategy has four priority pillars:
- Tackling the climate crisis and bolstering global energy security through investments in climate resilient infrastructure, transformational energy technologies, and developing clean energy supply chains across the full integrated lifecycle, from the responsible mining of metals and critical minerals; to low-emissions transportation and hard infrastructure; to investing in new global refining, processing, and battery manufacturing sites.
- Developing, expanding, and deploying secure information and communications technology (ICT) networks and infrastructure to power economic growth and facilitate open digital societies.
- Advancing gender equality and equity—from care infrastructure that increases opportunities for economic participation by women, to improved water and sanitation infrastructure.
- Developing and upgrading the infrastructure of health systems and contributing to global health security through investments in patient-centered health services and the health workforce; vaccine and other essential medical product manufacturing; and disease surveillance and early warning systems.