Organization: International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

Year of Publication: 2021

Type of green infrastructure: Natural Infrastructure

Type of benefit(s): Economic

Summary: New research shows that nature-based infrastructure (NBI) is up to 50% cheaper than traditional "grey" infrastructure to provide the same infrastructure service. In addition, NBI provides 28% better value for money than grey infrastructure. These numbers are based on the International Institute for Sustainable Development's Sustainable Asset Valuation assessments of various NBI projects.

To put these figures into context, we undertook a literature review on the global infrastructure gap and the extent to which a portion of this could be filled by using NBI. This allows us to estimate a global range of cost savings and value creation that NBI brings in comparison to "grey" alternatives. We found that if we met our current global infrastructure needs but swapped just over 11% of this with NBI-rather than traditional or "grey" infrastructure-we would save USD 248 billion each year, out of the USD 4.29 trillion needed annually. These savings could relieve some of the hefty strain already placed on public budgets by the ongoing health crisis and go to other urgent investment needs.

Our research shows that this infrastructure swap could create additional benefits worth up to USD 489 billion every year-a figure that rivals the annual GDP of countries such as Austria, Ireland, or Nigeria.

Governments and infrastructure investors normally default to grey infrastructure to meet infrastructure needs for coastal protection, water supply, energy, and transport, as well as to increase the resilience of existing infrastructure. This happens because the cost savings and added benefits of NBI options are neither well understood nor integrated into traditional assessments of infrastructure projects.
This means that grey infrastructure often appears as the more attractive option on paper, though it is less so on the ground. The result is a missed opportunity to tackle our climate and biodiversity crises, which places both our natural environment and societal health at risk.

Link: investment-in-nature-close-infrastructure-gap.pdf 914 KB