Did you know that polar bears do not kill penguins!
The SDG for tonight is Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure – “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”.
I feel the short version of this goal is sort of misleading, because the idea needs to be to build an infrastructure which can support developing sustainable industry. The targets are
- Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all
- Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry’s share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, and double its share in least developed countries
- Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets
- By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities
- Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending
- Facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States 18
- Support domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries, including by ensuring a conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial diversification and value addition to commodities
- Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020
As you can see the first target is infrastructure – and that makes more sense to me. The bad news is that we are going to fail to meet this goal.
I think one of the interesting areas to look at is transport. There are areas with good air transport infrastructure, but poor surface transport infrastructure. Generally speaking Europe and Asia fare better for surface transport than the rest of the world.
There is one interesting project I was involved in which was the “Euro-Asian Transport Links”. The idea was to create a land route from the Eastern shores of China to the Western shores of Europe. The main focus was on rail routes, and you may remember that this started operation a few years ago with a train from Beijing to the UK. If you are a rail nut then PM me and I’ll send you some links about the technical stuff.
Certainly the effects of coronavirus demonstrates the way our world has become smaller – how we depend on each other.
So how do we respond. I like the challenge in the graphic, to re-purpose as much as possible. But there are harder questions – how should we respond to infrastructure improvements like HS2 and the third runway at Heathrow. The infrastructure is needed, but the challenge is how to make that infrastructure sustainable.