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Infrastructure as Business brings new emphasis and clarity to the importance of private investment capital in large-scale infrastructure projects, introducing investors, policymakers, and other stakeholders to a key element that is surprisingly absent from the discourse on public-private partnerships. Despite the importance of modernizing infrastructure across the globe, governments often face challenges in securing the necessary capital to meet future need, as well as developing policy to meet these goals. Explaining the structure of the private investment universe and flow of private capital in such projects, this book ambitiously aims to bridge this'infrastructure gap'by elucidating shared terminology, conceptual frameworks, and an alignment of goals and objectives between public and private sectors—essential to meet increasing environmental, social, and governmental requirements for infrastructure in coming years. Appropriate for graduate-level courses in real estate, public policy, and urban planning that focus on infrastructure, project finance, and procurement and delivery models such as PPPs. Provides a clear understanding of private investment and PPPs to the investment community as well as professionals in real estate, project finance, and related fields, who often learn mostly on-the-job and from colleagues. Equips government officials and policymakers with key terms and concepts needed to'sit across the table'with private financers and explore opportunities for private capital investment in early project stages. Outlines communication strategies for both public and private sectors, which will increasingly need to collaborate to address climate change, respond to new technologies, and develop efficient ways to deliver services. Written to engage academic, private investment, and public policy/governance audiences alike, Infrastructure as Business: The Role of Private Investment Capital invites discussion and opens doors to advancing new business models, with international applications, to offer increased value for private investors as well as more efficient, flexible funding for innovative infrastructure development in the future.

This book provides examples and suggestions for readers to understand how public investment decisions for sustainable infrastructure are made. Through detailed analysis of public investment in infrastructure over the last few decades in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Finland, the author explores how the decision-making processes for major public works spending, many of them requiring quite rigorous and detailed computational methodologies, can result in plans that underserve large portions of the population, are inequitable, and fail to efficiently preserve public property. Beginning with some of the commonly offered explanations for the slow pace of investment and repair in a supposedly prosperous society facing serious environmental challenges, the book then explores media's role in shaping the public-at-large's understanding of the situation and the unimaginative solutions put forward by politicians. It continues with some case studies of infrastructure investment, or lack thereof, including an exploration of competing uses for government funds. It concludes with some suggestions. It is aimed at a large readership of professionals, students, and policy makers in political science, urban planning, and civil engineering.

Foundations of the Future examines the geo-economic and geo-strategic implications of a growing global'battle'to promote infrastructural connectivity across and between continents of the world. In this context, it highlights the importance of China's Belt and Road Initiative and of corresponding initiatives by the United States, Japan, India and Australia, among others.This book argues that many of the world's most advanced economies have neglected investment in basic infrastructure in recent decades, at a potential cost to their future economic and social development. It examines some of the financial and ideological constraints behind this neglect and argues that advanced economies in general need to adopt fundamental reforms in their approach to infrastructure. By emphasising the'battle'elements of emerging infrastructure competition among major powers, the book sets out to alert policymakers to the danger of some of these powers losing out in what is becoming a race to stay ahead or even abreast of others in the bid to achieve global physical connectivity.Related Link(s)

A new approach to rural development is emerging. Instead of being about attracting companies that might create jobs over which communities have no control, the emerging paradigm is about connecting the unique underutilized assets of place with market opportunity to grow assets that are owned and controlled by and for the benefit of low-wealth people and places. But asset development is about more than bricks and mortar or narrowly defined financial assets. There are many kinds of assets that communities require to thrive – such as social capital, natural capital, political capital, and intellectual capital. The emerging new approach to rural development is, then about broadening the definition of'wealth,'engaging underutilized assets, and a key third element: harnessing the power of the market – rather than relying solely on philanthropy and government. Wealth Creation provides a conceptual guide with practical examples for policymakers, practitioners of economic and community development, community organizers, environmentalists, funders, investors, and corporations seeking a values-based framework for identifying self-interests across sectors that can lead to opportunities to transform existing systems for the collective good.

Some 7.3 billion people currently live on the planet. Of these, 3.4 billion live in rural areas. In just a few regions—Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa—less than 50 per cent of poverty is now located in rural areas. But for the rest of the world's regions between 55 per cent and 80 per cent of the poor continue to live in the countryside. Progress is being made, but much of the knowhow needed is not disseminated outside of a small coterie of professionals who work in the area. With urban development attracting a great deal of attention lately, poorer rural areas deserve the same and new knowledge for empowerment of rural communities is urgently needed. This book provides an overview of current thinking and practices that have emerged over the last thirty years for uplifting rural communities in developing economies. Drawing on a body of knowledge across a spectrum of relevant disciplines, this book provides a range of innovative ideas for rural planning, housing and infrastructure development. Governments in many emerging economies, where rural poverty is often most acute, have attempted to improve livelihoods. Approaches and techniques that have been used for urban development are often not applicable to rural communities. Studies show that money allocated for rural development is often not effectively spent due to distance, lack of infrastructure, lack of education, poverty and other factors. Meanwhile, the gap in development between the city and country continues to grow, sometimes leading to social and political instability, in both developing and developed countries. This book seeks to provide a guidebook for meeting such challenges. Through in-depth enquiry of global practices and thinking about rural development, and selected case studies, the authors argue that careful consideration must be given to incorporating issues of resilience, resourcefulness and the involvement of communities at grassroots levels in realising the transformation of rural settlements into Smart Villages.

Drawing on the work of leading researchers and practitioners from a range of disciplines, including economic geography, economics, economic history, finance, law, and public policy, this edited collection provides a comprehensive assessment of stranded assets and the environment, covering the fundamental issues and debates, including climate change and societal responses to environmental change, as well as its origins and theoretical basis. The volume provides much needed clarity as the discourse on stranded assets gathers further momentum. In addition to drawing on scholarly contributions, there are chapters from practitioners and analysts to provide a range of critical perspectives. While chapters have been written as important standalone contributions, the book is intended to systematically take the reader through the key dimensions of stranded assets as a topic of research inquiry and practice. The work adopts a broad based social science perspective for setting out what stranded assets are, why they are relevant, and how they might inform the decision-making of firms, investors, policymakers, and regulators. The topic of stranded assets is inherently multi-disciplinary, cross-sectoral, and multi-jurisdictional and the volume reflects this diversity. This book will be of great relevance to scholars, practitioners and policymakers with an interest in include economics, business and development studies, climate policy and environmental studies in general.

The governance and evaluation of ‘megaprojects'– that is, large-scale, complex, high-stakes infrastructure projects usually commissioned by governments and delivered through partnerships between public and private organisations – is receiving increased attention. However, megaproject evaluation has hitherto largely adopted a linear-rationalist perspective to explain the frequent failure of such projects to meet the ‘iron triangle'of performance criteria: delivering on time, within budget, and according to specifications. This approach recommends greater control and accountability to remedy megaproject ‘pathologies'.Drawing on empirical examples mainly from the transport sector and radioactive waste disposal, this book offers new perspectives to megaproject evaluation. Comprising contributions from leading experts in project evaluation and appraisal, this collection opens up new avenues by suggesting two ways of improving megaproject evaluation: 1) approaches that go beyond the dominant linearrationalist notion of policy processes, and emphasise instead the objective of opening up appraisal processes in order to enhance learning and reflexivity; and 2) approaches that extend evaluative criteria beyond the ‘iron triangle', to cover the various socioeconomic impacts and preconditions for project success.This volume will be of great relevance to scholars and practitioners with an interest in megaprojects, energy and climate policy, radioactive waste management, urban design, and project planning and management.

Energy risk and security have become topical matters in Western and international policy discussions; ranging from international climate change mitigation to investment in energy infrastructures to support economic growth and more sustainable energy provisions. As such, ensuring the resilience of more sustainable energy infrastructures against disruptions has become a growing concern for high-level policy makers.Drawing on interviews, participant observation, policy analysis, and survey research, this book unpacks the work of the authorities, electricity companies, and lay persons that keeps energy systems from failing and helps them to recover from disruptions if they occur. The book explores a number of important issues: the historical security policy of energy infrastructures; control rooms where electricity is traded and maintained in real time; and electricity consumers in their homes. Presenting case studies from Finland and Scandinavia, with comparisons to the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union at large, Making Electricity Resilient offers a detailed and innovative analysis of long-term priorities and short-term dynamics in energy risk and resilience. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy policy and security, and science and technology studies.

In recent decades, resource-rich developing countries have been using their natural resources as collateral to access sources of finance for investment, countervailing the barriers they face when accessing conventional bank lending and capital markets. One of the financing models that have emerged as a result is the Resource Financed Infrastructure (RFI) model, a derivation of previous oil-backed lending models pioneered by several Western banks in Africa. Under a Resource Financed Infrastructure (RFI) arrangement, a loan for current infrastructure construction is securitized against the net present value of a future revenue stream from oil or mineral extraction. The model has been applied in several African countries, for a cumulative contract value of approximately $30 billion, according to publically available sources. This report, consisting of a study prepared by global project finance specialists Hunton & Williams LLP and comments from six internationally reputed economists and policy makers, provides an analytical discussion of resource-financed infrastructure (RFI) contracting from a project finance perspective. The report is meant as a forum for in-depth discussion and as a basis for further research into RFI’s role, risks, and potential, without any intention to present a World Bank–supported view on RFI contracting. It is motivated by the conviction that if countries are to continue to either seek RFI or receive unsolicited RFI proposals, there is an onus on public officials to discern bad deals from good, to judge unavoidable trade-offs, and to act accordingly. The report aims to provide a basis for developing insights on how RFI deals can be made subject to the same degree of public policy scrutiny as any other instrument through which a government of a low- or lower-middle-income country might seek to mobilize development finance.

Increasing concerns over the effects of climate change have heightened the importance of accelerating investments in green growth. The International Energy Agency, for example, estimates that to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent by 2050, global investments in the energy sector alone will need to total US$750 billion a year by 2030 and over US$1.6 trillion a year from 2030-2050. Despite global efforts to mobilize required capital flows, the investments still fall far short. Bloomberg New Energy Finance argues that by 2020 investments will be US$150 billion short from the levels required simply to stabilize CO2 emissions. For the East Asia and Pacific region alone, the World Bank study Winds of Change suggests that additional investments of US$80 billion a year over the next two decades are required. Multiple factors affect green investments, often rendering them financially not attractive. Private investment flows, therefore, depend on public sectors interventions and support. As in many countries public sector resources are scarce and spread across many competing commitments, they need to be used judiciously and strategically to leverage sufficient private flows. Many governments, however, still lack a clear comprehensive framework for assessing green investment climate and formulating an efficient mix of measures to accelerate green investments and are unfamiliar with international funding sources that can be tapped. To address this challenge, the World Bank, with support from AusAID, conducts the work on improving the financing opportunities for green infrastructure investments among its client countries. This activity attempts to identify practical ways to value and monetize environmental externalities of investments and improve the promotion and bankability of green projects. This research report, as a key step in this activity, provides a structured compendium of ongoing leading initiatives and activities designed to accelerate private investment flows in green growth. It summarizes current investment challenges of green projects as well as proposed solutions, financing schemes and instruments, and initiatives that have set the stage for promoting green growth. The results of this work are intended to benefit the international community and policymakers who are seeking to deepen their knowledge of green investment environment. In addition, it is hoped that this work will be useful to practitioners, including fund managers and investors, seeking to have a better understanding of current trends, global initiatives, and available funding sources and mechanisms for financing green projects.

In all societies, the main causes of environmental degradation are resource extraction and the generation of wastes by households and industries. Realistic strategies for mitigating these impacts require an understanding of both the technologies by which resources are transformed into products, and the lifestyle choices that shape household use of such products. Structural Economics provides a framework for developing and evaluating such strategies. It represents an important new approach to describing household lifestyles and technological choices, the relationships between them, and their impact on resource use and waste. In this volume, economist Faye Duchin provides for the first time an authoritative and comprehensive introduction to the field, including its social as well as its technological dimensions. The presentation is accessible to non-specialists while also including a substantial amount of new research. Duchin's primary achievement is to integrate a qualitatively rich understanding of technologies and lifestyles into a flexible, quantitative framework grounded in established principles of input-output economics and social accounting. She uses tools and insights from areas as diverse as demography and market research to conceptualize and describe different categories of households and their lifestyles. She also draws on the expertise of engineers and physical scientists to examine the potential for technological change. The framework Duchin develops permits the rigorous and detailed analysis of specific scenarios for alternative technologies and changes in lifestyle. The author uses the case of Indonesia for illustration and to refine new concepts by testing their relevance against factual information. The new field of structural economics represents an important step forward in the effort to apply the power of science to solving the problems of modern societies. This book should prove invaluable to students and scholars of economics, sociology, or anthropology, as well as environmental scientists, policymakers at all levels, and anyone concerned with a practical interpretation of the elusive concept of sustainable development.