
Governance Infrastructure Sustainability
Supporting Delivery of Government Priorities and the National Infrastructure Strategy
UKCRIC's systemic approach is essential to de-risking the UK’s planned £600Bn 10-year investment in infrastructure
This UKCRIC Insights Article is based on the paper Systemic Perspectives on National Infrastructure for a Sustainable, Resilient Net Zero Future. The paper on which it is based presents a Systemic Characterisation of, and 20 Systemic Perspectives on, the role of National Infrastructure systems, in catalysing societal wide progress toward a Sustainable, Resilient, Net Zero Future, and supporting COP26, #RacetoResilience and #RacetoZero. To Download the Full Paper [click here Systemic Perspectives on National Infrastructure for a Sustainable, Resilient Net Zero Future]
This Insight Article first outlines systemic perspectives on the climate emergency, and National Infrastructure, before bringing them together to champion the importance National Infrastructure playing a central role in a wider systemic response to the Global Climate Emergency.
The Climate Emergent(cy) is an emergent Wicked Problem, an unintentional outcome from the systems that enable all aspects of our Modern lifestyles, societies and national economies. It comprises a pair of deeply interdependent wicked challenges:
The two (a and b) must be addressed synergistically, through a diverse, long-term, collaborative, dynamic, multi¬faceted, multi-scale, cradle-to-cradle and synergistic portfolio of systemically targeted interventions focused on transforming the wider system(s) from which they emerge.
Moreover, other sustainability challenges (air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, solid waste and sewage produced), resilience challenges, and many societal challenges are also emergent wicked problems, unintentional outcomes from the systems that enable our Modern lifestyles, societies and national economies. It follows, action to address the Climate Emergency is a synergistic opportunity to simultaneously address other interdependent challenges.
The required speed, scale and breadth of systemic transformation to address the Climate Emergent(cy), cannot be achieved iteratively, on a sector by sector basis or purely through technical innovation. It will require: an unprecedented level of interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral, society-wide collaboration; and a broad systemic focus on:
In particular, it will require the explicit integration of the qualities ‘net zero enabling’, ‘sustainability supporting’, ‘resilience enhancing’ into: the stated purpose of all societal enabling systems driving its emergence i.e. the outcomes it is expected to enable; and all Governance +++ structures associate with those systems.
All aspects of Modern life are infrastructure-enabled. Modern societies, economies and the places (cities) in which we live are enabled by, and have co-evolved with, the interdependent systems of infrastructure networks (National infrastructure) that serve them.
This National Infrastructure is an open complex interdependent system comprised of the a) Physical infrastructure networks, b) Governance structures, c) Regulatory frameworks d) Management processes associated with the six economic infrastructure sectors of which it is comprised e) Interdependencies within and between each of the above f) Interdependencies with the Dynamic External Context (DEC) within which it is embedded.
National Infrastructure simultaneously:
A, B and C are deeply interdependent, tightly coupled, emergent properties that arising directly or indirectly from National Infrastructure.
National Infrastructure is a systemically, societally, economically and globally significant synergistic leverage point capable of catalysing the speed, scale and breath of societal and economic transformation that will be required to successfully address the climate emergent(cy) and address other sustainability challenges.
Therefore, the systemically targeted transformation of National Infrastructure from a system that passively (unintentionally) drives the emergence of sustainability and resilience challenges into a net zero enabling, sustainability and resilience enhancing system is urgently needed to catalyse synergistic society-wide progress toward a sustainable, net zero, resilient economy.
The Systemic Transformation of National Infrastructure can:
Therefore, whilst the systemic transformation of National Infrastructure is a unilateral action, it is available to all nations, and replicable on a global scale. It is, therefore, a globally significant opportunity to address the Climate Emergency.
However, a word of caution. Systemic transformation must be driven by Net Zero targets that, are consistent with the global necessity of reducing to Net zero GHG emission from the global economy i.e. include All GHG emissions associated with domestic production and domestic consumption.
Systemic Transformation driven be Net Zero targets focused on the GHG emissions associated with domestic production only, as appears to be the case in the UK will lead to outcomes that undermine achievement of global net zero and ultimately the strength of the national economy implementing them.
To Download the Full Paper [click here Systemic Perspectives on National Infrastructure for a Sustainable, Resilient Net Zero Future]
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