Leaders from across the international infrastructure sector have signed up to attend the first ever Global Leadership Forum Summit to debate the direction of the sector and create a roadmap for delivering on climate change and other major challenges.
Following COP27, the infrastructure sector committed to bring together leaders from around the world to set a strategic direction that reflects the infrastructure’s major role in delivering change. That summit will now take place in Geneva 27-28 April 2023.
Pan-infrastructure approach
The summit brings together leaders from diverse parts of the infrastructure ecosystem. Advisory leaders from EY, digital leaders from Bentley Systems and Schneider Electric and engineers from Arcadis, Ramboll, Mott MacDonald, WSP and Aurecon will all come together with policy experts and innovators to set a path for the industry.
Bertrand Picard of the Solar Impulse Foundation and Diane Holdorf of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development will be among those leading debates and the plan for the summit is to arrive at tangible and practical outcomes and actions to be implemented across the sector.
Practical outcomes
Practical outcomes are central to the summit as it examines how to successfully reshape the world in light of climate change and new global risks.
EY will lead a discussion of their work with the Global Leadership Forum future infrastructure think tank. This will see delegates contribute to a major piece of work examining the global infrastructure landscape and future investment scenarios.
The CEOs of Genève Aéroport and engineering firm Aurecon will lead an examination of cyber security and its growing importance to the delivery and resilience of vital infrastructure.
There will also be debates on the investment outlook led by Mike Haigh of Mott MacDonald, regional energy strategy led by Siemens Energy and a debate on skills strategies led by Malani Padayachee-Saman, CEO of MPAMOT.
Why now?
The summit has been convened by the Global Leadership Forum, a group of global leaders set up last year by international engineering federation FIDIC. With widespread geopolitical instability and the need to move faster on the climate crisis, FIDIC CEO, Dr Nelson Ogunshakin, spoke to IG to explain the ambition behind this summit.
“This summit will see infrastructure industry leaders examine how we set a collective path and agree a white paper that spans the whole of the industry,” he said. “In doing so, we can set a strategy with leadership from the very top that will help to establish practical solutions to the challenges that industry can solve by working together.
“At the same time, we will provide an expert roadmap and resource for governments and public bodies around the world to consult on how to procure, invest and deliver the rapid decarbonisation that the world needs.”
To find out how to engage with the Global Leadership Forum and the summit, click here.
