The 2020 Global Risks for Infrastructure Map

The infrastructure sector today faces a complex landscape of global risks. The 2020 Global Risks Report (GRR), an annual report published by the World Economic Forum with support from Marsh & McLennan, warns of a chronically unsettled global landscape – one that businesses cannot expect will ‘snap back’ to its old normal.

Against a backdrop of continued macroeconomic uncertainty, societal instability, weaponized cyber capabilities, acute environmental threats and geopolitical frictions, infrastructure investors will need to be adaptable to ensure the longevity and security of their assets. Doing so will require an earnest consideration of the World Economic Forum’s call for a multi-stakeholder approach to mitigating emerging risks. The 2020 Global Risks for Infrastructure Map, produced by Marsh & McLennan Advantage Insights in partnership with the Global Infrastructure Investor Association (GIIA), provides some guidance for investors looking to navigate the choppy waters ahead, based on key data shown in the 2020 Global Risks Report.

Risk Profiles: Select a risk type to explore key markets at risk and review a case study

The first page of the 2020 Global Risks for Infrastructure Map provides investors with a view of the key risks presented within the GRR (referred to here as ‘global risks’) with material relevance to the infrastructure sector, and the markets where business executives believe these risks are of high concern.

This page also includes a curation of case studies evaluating ways in which these risks have affected infrastructure assets in recent years. These case studies have been carefully selected from key infrastructure markets where concerns regarding global risks loom large on the horizon.  

Interconnections: Select a case study to explore its interconnected risks

The second page of the 2020 Global Risks for Infrastructure Map provides an even broader view of the global risks infrastructure investors can face in the coming years.

Under ‘Interconnections’, investors can gain insight into the complex and unexpected interconnections between today’s global risks, and how they can compound damages for infrastructure assets.

Taken from around the world, the case studies on this page illustrate both the cascading manner in which risks can indirectly come together to impact infrastructure, as well as the way discrete infrastructure-related risk events can trigger adjacent risks for the infrastructure sector and beyond.

Deep Dives: A closer look at the effects of climate change and transformative technology on the infrastructure sector

In the coming months, Marsh & McLennan Advantage Insights and the GIIA will also release in-depth reports on two crucial global risks facing the infrastructure sector: climate change, and the emergence of transformative technologies.

Global Risks for Infrastructure: The Climate Challenge will take a closer look at the impact of climate-induced physical and transition risks on the infrastructure sector, and will outline viable mitigation solutions and strategic opportunities for investors.

In Global Risks for Infrastructure: Transformative Technologies, we provide a focused overview of the ways in which transformative technologies are changing the infrastructure sector, and provide frameworks that investors can consider for future-proofing their assets.

We hope that these insights will be used by investors to develop a textured, multi-stakeholder understanding of the global risks the infrastructure sector faces in 2020 and beyond.

For more information on these case studies and the associated data, please see the Appendix below. This document contains each of the case studies represented in the interactive 2020 Global Risks for Infrastructure Map, as well as definitions for each risk type and a fuller set of data from the GRR.