Infrastructure

Enhanced dialogue on infrastructure modernisation and expansion will accelerate investment in existing and new interconnections for traditional and new energy flows among production and consumption centers. Collaboration on energy infrastructure security and resiliency is urgently needed to keep pace with rapidly changing demand and supply patterns and to implement new energy policy and technology innovations. These will enable producers and consumers to successfully fulfil their shared aspirations in respect of sustainable development and climate change.

Global energy infrastructure—the immense delivery system of oil and natural gas pipelines, power transmission lines, storage facilities, and other projects—ensures an affordable and reliable exchange between supply and demand across all sectors of the global economy, energising secure and sustainable economic growth in a rapidly changing world.

Innovation continues to transform energy infrastructure worldwide. Nations benefit from efficiency gains, new production flows, digitalization, smart grids, and other modern and new transportation techniques in more dynamic energy markets. Over the longer term, clean air, climate, and inclusive economic growth necessitate that investment and technological advancements in energy infrastructure offer greater flexibility options to keep pace with growing and more diverse needs worldwide.

Energy infrastructure must become more secure, sustainable, and resilient. Timely investments in infrastructure depend in large part on an enabling market environment. Increased policy cohesion and regulatory certainty helps to maintain a level playing field among energy sources and facilitate regional market integration through cross-border networks that reduce trade and investment barriers. Incentives and reductions in regulatory limits will allow for more private-sector capital to be put into service in energy sector infrastructure.

Geopolitical and natural causes, as well major accidents can disrupt energy markets when they affect critical energy infrastructures. Advances in information technology, connectivity, and growing electrification rates globally create new risks that pose a threat to the energy market and world economic stability. The reliable functioning of infrastructure facilities during extreme circumstances demands adequate crisis prevention and emergency response mechanisms including but not limited to cyberspace and maritime monitoring.