Leanne England

We must focus on the upgrading and development of new infrastructure. This is critical for a few reasons. Firstly, in meeting environmental targets by reducing the reliance on fossil fuels and secondly, ensuring that both local and international travel can be done in the most energy-efficient manner. A revitalisation of infrastructure needs to be looked at holistically and on a global scale – from increasing the number of electric cars to improving the performance of airplanes and upgrading rail networks to ensure they are more reliable and available to more people. Undoubtedly the existing infrastructure will not be able to cope.

In parallel, we must also ensure that the new infrastructure and systems are resilient to any significant and adverse changes to the climate. Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick over the past few months of these occurrences, including flooding, extreme temperatures, and wildfires. As such, we know that addressing these changes now is vital, particularly considering the expected population increase to five billion by 2030.