Sustainable infrastructure

Infrastructure is critical for the UK’s ability to continue to grow prosperity. The UK government wants to do this while:

• reducing the global impact on the environment
• bringing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050
• helping to mitigate the impacts of climate change

UK infrastructure has a compelling offer for markets across the globe. There are numerous domestic opportunities for potential investors in areas like construction, rail, and water. These opportunities are being supported by new policies and funding.

Opportunity highlights

Construction

Buildings account for 40% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. When including indirect emissions, buildings account for 23% of the UK carbon emissions. Reducing emissions from buildings is critical to achieving net zero by 2050. There is significant work underway within the sector through the Construction Leadership Council’s Green Construction Board and Construct Zero programme and, so addressing the whole life carbon of buildings is a focus for the government.

The UK has a world-leading Building Information Modelling (BIM) offer which can improve the carbon performance of infrastructure projects and help support sustainability in construction. PAS 2080 is a globally-applicable standard for managing carbon in building and infrastructure. It looks at the whole value chain and aims to reduce carbon and cost through intelligent design, construction and use. It’s a key reference document in the UK government’s Construction Playbook that’s increasingly becoming the go-to specification for carbon management in the built environment.

The UK has committed to a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions for the built environment by 2030. This will create more innovation and greater expertise with the potential to increase exports and grow productivity. Low carbon technologies are also being used for greener building.

The UK is also developing modern methods of construction and investing in retrofitting our existing building stock with new technologies, such as heat pumps, to increase efficiency in building construction and use. This includes building the retrofit workforce to deliver a competent and skilled workforce to support our decarbonisation and net zero requirements.

Rail

The UK brought rail to the world, and it remains a global rail leader in terms of its expertise. This is due to the historic legacy of UK railways and the reputations of Network Rail and Transport for London as system providers and operators; able to manage complex networks and operations, as well as the integration of historic and modern infrastructure. The UK rail industry and government expertise continues to influence the content of rail technical standards used across Europe, Western Asia and beyond.

The Sustainable Rail Blueprint is the industry-wide framework for realising sustainable rail. It is rail’s first unified plan, providing a whole-industry view as far as 2050. This plans to:

• decarbonise railway operations
• reduce the use of raw materials and improve reuse and recycling
• reduce impacts on the environment (for example air, noise and water)
• enhance biodiversity
• use land more sustainably

The plan is to prepare for a changing climate and reduce the impacts of extreme weather. The weather risk taskforce is an industry-leading example of drawing international best practice in delivering resilience.

The Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE)

The Global Centre of Rail Excellence is a new, purpose-built facility being constructed in South Wales that will become Europe’s leading centre for rail and sustainable mobility innovation. It will be a site for world class research, testing and showcasing of next generation rolling stock, infrastructure and cutting-edge new rail and mobility technologies, providing a range of services unique across the continent. GCRE will become the UK’s first ever net zero in operation railway, supporting the innovations needed to decarbonise the UK and European railway. GCRE will help to rebuild local prosperity, make transport better and pioneer a net zero railway.

Airports

The UK airport supply chain offers a wide range of world-class products and services to support the efficient and safe operation of airports and meet the needs of airport operators, airlines, and passengers. ​

​UK companies have significant experience in delivering the sustainable design, master planning and construction of airports – through to their operation: from leading-edge initiatives in air traffic control management to autonomous transit systems specialist security equipment. ​

Operating in over 100 countries including at the world’s top 60 international airports, the UK supply chain is involved in the planning and delivery of the largest and most prestigious airport development programmes. ​

​These include our own Heathrow Airport, as well as Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman International, Poland’s Centralny Port Komunikacyjny, New York’s John F. Kennedy and Los Angeles International in California. ​

Water

The UK water industry is preparing for the largest investment period in history, to:

• maintain the highest quality drinking water for a growing population
• ensure the security of our water supply in the future
• significantly reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows

UK utilities are adopting and developing new AI-led and machine learning technologies to transform how they manage assets and systems, and to help them meet their ambition to reach net zero in their operations by 2030.

The UK water companies help other sectors prepare for times of water scarcity, flooding and sea level rise, embedding resilience into buildings and systems in the face of a changing climate.

The UK water industry is committed to net zero carbon emissions, an industry previously responsible for 5 million tonnes of greenhouse gases emitted every year. The regulatory environment is leading water utilities to drive net zero innovations in their supply chains, including the use of digital applications. These applications have huge potential in international markets.

Nature-based solutions are playing an increasingly central role in UK water industry planning, working in parallel with traditional grey infrastructure to improve water quality and buffer human settlements from climate hazards, including flooding.

Adaptation and resilience

Climate change is driving changes to the physical conditions that businesses exist in and are reliant upon. The UK is a leader on infrastructure adaptation and resilience solutions. UK companies are providing the latest tools, advice and research to inform future climate policies, as guided by the National Infrastructure Commission and Climate Change Committee.

At both a national and a local level, the UK is responding to changes in climate and extreme weather and using projections from the Met Office to plan a resilient future. Many infrastructure operators collaborate and report climate risk and adaptation plans – to promote a community of resilience. Many organisations adhere to ISO 14090:2019: Adaptation to climate change – Principles, requirements and guidelines, to predict risk and minimise losses from extreme weather impacts. Anticipation has also been used to develop resilient maritime ports, to reduce the impacts of severe weather on trade operations.

Photo credit: Raise Telecoms Ltd and Met Office

Freeports

Construction, rail and resilience are fundamental to viable trading ports which link the UK to the global economy. There are a series of key freeports in the UK:

• Teesside Freeport
• Thames Freeport
• Freeport East (Felixstowe and Harwich)

R&D capability

Construction

The National digital twin programme (NDTP) is the government-led programme committed to growing capability in digital twinning technologies and processes throughout the country. This programme is being tested in real world situations through the NDTP demonstrator programme on the Isle of Wight. Digital twins are being applied to the management of physical climate risks. The Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo) looks specifically at the impact of heat and flooding on energy, water and telecoms networks.

The Construction Innovation Hub drives innovation throughout construction, addressing the sector’s performance and productivity challenges.

Rail

UK Rail Research and Innovation Network is creating powerful collaborations between academia and industry, to innovate in the sector and accelerate new technologies and products from research into the global market.

Network Rail’s Research, Development & Innovation programme is looking to develop agile innovation processes, with sustainable and intelligent infrastructure a focus of this.

Airports

The Jet Zero Taskforce will provide strategic leadership and take an outcome-focused, whole systems approach to support innovation, economic growth and the decarbonisation of the UK aviation sector.

The Jet Zero Taskforce brings together government and stakeholders from the UK aviation sector to:

1. Support the development, production, commercialisation and use of sustainable aviation fuels in the UK and globally.
2. Facilitate the development and deployment of zero emission aircraft in the UK, including through unlocking regulatory, infrastructure and commercialisation barriers.
3. Explore opportunities to make efficiency gains in reducing carbon emissions across the whole UK aviation system, including through development and deployment of more efficient aircraft, and the potential for greater operational efficiencies.
4. Consider the aviation sector’s future demand for energy, feedstocks, hydrogen and greenhouse gas removals.
5. Recognise that aviation has significant non-CO2 impacts on the climate, with further work required to strengthen our scientific understanding and develop approaches to mitigate their impact.

Water

In 2020, the UK water and wastewater utility companies published the 2050 Water Innovation Strategy, which sets out the sector’s vision for delivering transformative innovation within the water and wastewater industries.

Ofwat, the regulator for the water sector of England and Wales, has established a £4,200 million Innovation Fund to grow the water sector’s capacity to innovate, enabling it to better meet the evolving needs of customers, society, and the environment.

UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) drives leading research in the UK water sector, funded by the UK water companies. Over 2023 and 2024, UKWIR invested £4 million in research projects covering resilience, protecting natural ecosystems, achieving net zero carbon and delivering better services.

Adaptation and resilience

The UK research councils support adaptation and resilience development, including through InnovateUK and the National Environmental Research Council. The National digital twin programme is the government-led programme committed to growing capability in digital twinning technologies and processes throughout the country. Digital twins are being applied to the management of physical climate risks. The Climate Resilience Demonstrator looks specifically at the impact of heat and flooding on energy, water and telecoms networks.

Globally, the UK government is investing in the Advanced Research and Invention Agency to develop early warning systems for climate change tipping points through the use of sensors, models and robotics.

To deliver faster climate change adaptation action, InnovateUK has backed the Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change hub.

Business and government support

To encourage growth in the UK and support the transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the government is establishing the UK Infrastructure Bank. Together with the private sector and local government, the bank will lead a shared mission to accelerate investment in the UK’s infrastructure. Following the Chancellor’s announcement on 14 October 2024, the UK Infrastructure Bank has become the National Wealth Fund.

It provides £27.8 billion of finance and partners with the private sector and local government to support projects which help crowd in private investment and drive growth across the UK.

The National Wealth Fund is wholly owned and backed by HM Treasury, but operationally independent.

The National Wealth Fund’s investments must meet its triple bottom line:

• tackling climate change and driving regional and local economic growth
• generating a positive financial return to create an enduring institution
• being additional in the market, mobilising private finance