Mai 2026
PNUE, Programme des Nations unies pour l'environnement (108 pages).

As climate risks rise and cities grow, we must rethink how we build to create better lives for all.
The Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction (Buildings-GSR), published by UNEP and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC), provides an annual snapshot of the sector's progress globally. It reviews the status of policies, finance, technologies and solutions to monitor alignment with the Paris Agreement goals. The 2025/2026 edition — Building fast. Falling short — is the 10th edition of this flagship publication. It benchmarks progress through the Global Buildings Climate Tracker across emissions, building energy codes, renewable energy, green building certification, and investment in energy efficiency, covering climate resilience, housing affordability, and the 2050 Buildings Breakthrough and Déclaration de Chaillot. Despite a decade of progress, the sector remains off track, accounting for 37 per cent of global emissions and nearly 50 per cent of global material extraction, as decarbonisation stalls and construction outpaces climate action.

Mai 2026
PWC (43 pages).

By 2050, the world will be increasingly dependent on electrification, data, automation, and circular resource flows. And infrastructure will no longer be defined solely by isolated physical assets like roads, grids, or plants. It will span the digital, environmental, industrial, and social systems that underpin productivity and human well-being. Importantly, these systems will all be interconnected — and they will rely on one another for smooth functioning.
New energy and digital assets will scale rapidly, accelerating the application of AI computing hubs and high-density data centres, carbon capture networks, and microgrids that give users real-time control over reliability and cost. Roads will carry autonomous vehicles and embed abilities like dynamic pricing and wireless charging. Airports will function as predictive, intermodal hubs that manage vast fleets of drones and autonomous, electrified aircraft. Businesses will run automated, just -in-time supply networks powered by clean
energy and secure computing. Systems will anticipate needs, allocate resources dynamically, and optimise performance — delivering structural productivity gains across every sector. The impact on communities will be significant, giving people more time to do the things they love. That may sound like a lot to expect from the global network of roads, power plants, ports, buildings, and data centres. After all, parts of this network are ageing and in obvious need of repairs and modernisation.
But the world requires nothing less from its built environment. Big changes are afoot in the coming 25 years. A projected 1.8 billion more people will live in cities by 2050 — mostly in the Asia-Pacific region and Africa — and the number of megacities worldwide will nearly double. Climate impacts will test resilience and expose vulnerabilities in transport, energy, and
urban systems. The rise of AI, cloud computing, and data-driven services will fundamentally reshape infrastructure needs. And as this Outlook is being written, recent developments in the Middle East are reinforcing how quickly geopolitical shocks can reshape infrastructure priorities. Disruptions to energy flows, shipping routes, and critical industrial inputs highlight the importance of resilience, redundancy, and security alongside efficiency, affordability, and decarbonisation.
That’s why PwC commissioned Oxford Economics to produce a new forecast model for infrastructure. Drawing on the last 20 years of spending data, our Global Infrastructure Outlook 2025–50 uses macro modelling engines, calibrated to today’s geopolitical and economic realities. The Outlook covers nine sectors and 20 subsectors in 45 countries and territories, recognising the evolution of infrastructure over the past decade — think power storage and data centres — and the heightened importance of sectors such as defence infrastructure and the transmission and distribution infrastructure needed to support the AI revolution.
The result? The most comprehensive, market-ready global infrastructure forecast available, designed to help investors, policymakers, and industry leaders identify and seize opportunities sooner and with far greater precision.
In the period covered by our Outlook, global annual spending is forecast to rise from $4.4 trillion in 2024 to $6.9 trillion in 2050 — representing a cumulative total of $151.1 trillion over 25 years.

Avril 2026
Banque Mondiale (204 pages).

Infrastructure lies at the heart of development. Reliable energy systems, efficient transport networks, and robust digital connectivity are essential for economic growth, job creation, social inclusion, and resilience. They connect people to employment clusters and markets, enable firms to compete and innovate, and allow societies to deliver basic services—from health and education to water and sanitation—at scale. Yet across much of the developing world, large gaps in infrastructure access and quality persist, even as fiscal space remains constrained and investment needs continue to grow.
"Infrastructure Foundations" presents the first exhaustive global database on physical infrastructure assets, covering energy generation capacity, transmission lines, roads, railways, and digital infrastructure such as cell towers, data centers, and fiber-optic cables. Assets are geolocated at detailed administrative levels, enabling fine-grained spatial analysis of infrastructure gaps. The resulting data set supports a comprehensive global assessment of infrastructure stocks, costs, and social returns across more than 150 countries.
Building on this evidence, the report develops a policy framework to guide infrastructure investment decisions. The framework allows policy makers to identify infrastructure gaps and prioritize investments under resource constraints. It estimates social rates of return at the country–sector level and compares them with countries’ borrowing costs to derive efficiency ratios. This approach helps assess whether investment in a given sector is justified and how returns compare across sectors.
The results indicate that, in most countries, investment opportunities in energy, transport, and digital sectors exceed borrowing costs, pointing to widespread underinvestment and the potential for a “big push,” especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Overall, the findings also highlight the importance of mixed investment strategies that leverage complementarities across infrastructure sectors. By grounding investment choices in transparent data and comparable metrics, the report aims to support better prioritization, foster more informed policy dialogue, and help countries build durable infrastructure foundations for future development.

Avril 2026
Banque Asiatique de Développement (42 pages).

This publication provides a comprehensive framework to assess Value for Money (VfM) in procurement for infrastructure projects financed by multilateral development banks to help ensure resources deliver the best outcomes for communities.

Avril 2026
EPEC, European PPP Expertise Centre (210 pages).

This EPEC PPP Guide is an update of the 2015 version of the EPEC Guide to Guidance knowledge product.
In addition, it builds upon the EPEC PPP Project Preparation Status Tool, which was developed to assist contracting authorities in assessing the preparation status of a PPP at the point of the decision to launch a public procurement procedure. It is also informed by the other numerous guides on specific PPP topics previously published by EPEC.

Mars 2026
Banque Mondiale (93 pages).

Building on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 and the OECD Prevent-React-Rebuild (PRR) framework, this report examines Building Back Better (BBB) as a strategic approach to post-disaster reconstruction that goes beyond restoring infrastructure to pre-disaster conditions. It frames rebuilding as a deliberate development choice aimed at reducing pre-existing vulnerabilities through improved design standards, stronger institutions, and better land use, governance, and service delivery. While BBB may increase upfront reconstruction costs, it is essential for breaking cycles of weak development and limited resilience, particularly in developing countries where infrastructure and socio-economic gaps remain deep. The report emphasizes the need for systemic, forward-looking planning alongside emergency response, shifting from asset replacement to life-cycle-based investments that enhance safety, reliability, inclusiveness, and adaptability. Drawing on global good practices and case studies from Honduras, Indonesia, Japan, Malawi, Nepal, Peru, and Samoa, it presents five actionable principles to operationalize BBB. It also highlights the critical role of development banks and finance institutions in mobilizing long-term financing, enabling partnerships, and ensuring that rebuilding efforts translate into sustainable development outcomes.

Février 2026
ITDP, Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (32 pages).

Public transport is a vital part of cities, connecting people to jobs, education, healthcare, and other opportunities. In most cities around the world, public transport — both formal and informal — accounts for the majority of motorized trips, from 40% to 70%. In the United States, where transit accounts for just 10% to 20% of daily travel, studies still show high economic returns on investment, with every $1 spent on transit generating approximately $5 in broader economic benefits (American Public Transportation Association, 2020). By providing publicly available passenger service that most commonly operates with fixed routes and schedules, public transport offers an efficient way to move large numbers of people through dense cities while using minimal space. More than just a mobility solution, it is a foundation for economic development, social inclusion and environmental sustainability. Further, public transport reduces CO2 emissions by up to 45% per passenger-km compared to private vehicles. In well-planned cities, public transport supported by walking and cycling enables vibrant, compact, and connected urban areas, making them more livable and efficient for all.
Despite its benefits, public transport has faced increasing challenges in recent years. Ridership has declined in many places, with some cities experiencing reductions of 26% post-pandemic. Infrastructure investments remain insufficient, with a global funding gap estimated at $15 trillion by 2040. Additionally, in some regions, service quality has not kept pace with growing urban needs, leading to increased reliance on private vehicles and worsening traffic congestion. Projections indicate that urban passenger transport demand will more than double by 2050, intensifying existing issues. The current scenario presents a crucial opportunity to rethink and strengthen public transport systems worldwide. Addressing these gaps requires increased funding, strategic partnerships and global knowledge-sharing to ensure that both well-established and fast-growing cities can build resilient, adaptable, and high-quality public transport networks.
This publication presents the Public Transport Principles — a shared framework to guide governments, planners, and advocates in designing public transport systems that deliver good service, with zero-emissions vehicles for everyone, grounded in well-managed institutions and wellfunded operations. These five principles define what makes good public transport services effective, equitable, and transformative and how to achieve them. In a moment when cities face mounting pressure to improve access, reduce emissions, and support inclusive economic growth, there is an urgent need for clear guidance.
Rather than prescribing one-size-fits-all solutions, this paper offers adaptable principles grounded in global experience. It can be used to inform policy development, align stakeholder efforts, and support more consistent evaluation of what constitutes “good public transport.”
Ultimately, it aims to empower cities to make strategic, long-term improvements that deliver lasting benefits to people and the planet.

Janvier 2026
UNU-INWEH, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (72 pages).

Water is the quiet infrastructure of everything the United Nations cares about: human security and prosperity, food and energy security, biodiversity, environmental resilience, public health, climate stability, and peace. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) captures this centrality by committing the world to ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Yet, the world is still very far from meeting SDG 6. About 2.2 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, 3.5 billion lack safely
managed sanitation, and about 4 billion people experience severe water scarcity for at least one month per year. Nearly 75% of the world’s population lives in countries classified as water-insecure or critically water-insecure with progress toward SDG 6 is far off track for 2030. These figures indicate that water-related risks are now systemic rather than marginal.
For decades, the global policy and science communities have warned of an escalating “water crisis” and called for accelerated action to avert it.
Those warnings were not wrong, but they are now incomplete. The language of crisis — suggesting a temporary emergency followed by a return to normal through mitigation efforts — no longer captures what is happening in many parts of the world.
This report by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNUINWEH) on the 30th anniversary of its inception responds to this gap by offering a new, more precise diagnosis and recommendations for a new governance agenda fitting the water realities of the Anthropocene in the 21st century. The report is a wake-up call and an open invitation to the policy community to use water as a powerful bridge to promote cooperation to address some of the most critical security, peace, justice, development, and sustainability challenges of our time.
The central message of this report is direct: the world has entered the era of Global Water Bankruptcy. In many regions, human–water systems are already in a post-crisis state of failure. Over decades, societies have withdrawn more water than climate and hydrology can reliably provide, drawing down not only the annual “income” of renewable flows but also the “savings” stored in aquifers, glaciers, soils, wetlands, and river ecosystems. At the same time, pollution, salinization, and other forms of water quality degradation have reduced the fraction of water that is safely usable.
The consequences of water bankruptcy are now visible on every continent: rivers that no longer reach the sea; lakes, wetlands, and glaciers that have shrunk or disappeared; aquifers pumped down until land subsides and salt intrudes; forests and peatlands drying and burning; deserts and dust functioning more efficiently within tighter hydrologic limits through reconfigured economics, governance institutions, and development models, while recognizing non-stationary climatic and changed environmental conditions.
The report reframes the water governance challenge for a post-crisis era. Rather than asking only how to avoid a future water crisis, it asks what it means to govern human-water systems on a waterbankrupt planet: how to admit insolvency where it exists; how to manage irreversibility honestly; how to share unavoidable losses fairly; and how to design institutions, development pathways, and financial frameworks that prevent further overspending of hydrological capital and damage to the underlying natural capital.
The report emphasizes that water bankruptcy is also a justice, security and political economy challenge. Water bankruptcy management must therefore be explicitly equity-oriented: securing basic human needs and critical services; safeguarding environmental flows; providing compensation and social protection where livelihoods must change; and strengthening grievance and conflict resolution mechanisms at local, national, and transboundary levels. Without this justice lens, necessary reforms risk fueling social unrest and undermining the
political viability of transitions.
Finally, the report situates Global Water Bankruptcy within the wider multilateral landscape and the realities of a fragmented world. It argues that the current global water agenda — focused primarily on safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), incremental efficiency gains and generic IWRM prescriptions — is no longer fit for purpose in the Anthropocene or for an era of growing geopolitical tensions and stalled multilateral processes. It calls for a new water agenda that recognizes water as both a constraint and an opportunity sector for achieving the goals of the Rio Conventions and the 2030 Agenda, aligning local and national priorities with global climate, biodiversity and land commitments, and offering common ground between the Global North and Global South as well as between rural and urban, left and right constituencies. It proposes that water be used as a bridge between fragmented policy arenas and a divided world, helping to re-energize stalled negotiations on the triple planetary crisis. The upcoming UN Water Conferences in 2026 and 2028, the conclusion of the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development” in 2028, and the 2030 deadline for SDG 6 are identified as critical milestones for embedding water-bankruptcy diagnostics, monitoring frameworks and justtransition support into global governance.
This UNU-INWEH report is not another warning about a crisis that might arrive in the future. It is a declaration that the world is already living beyond its hydrological means and that many human-water systems are operating in a state of water bankruptcy. Recognizing this post-crisis reality is not an act of resignation; it is the starting point for a more honest, science-based and justice-oriented agenda that uses mitigation and adaptation to build a fresh, more sustainable balance between societies and the water on which they depend — before the remaining natural capital is lost.

Janvier 2026
Cour des Comptes Européenne (36 pages).

Les mégaprojets sont essentiels à l’achèvement du réseau transeuropéen de transport de l’UE. En 2020, nous avions publié un rapport spécial qui faisait état de retards importants, d’augmentations des coûts, d’une mauvaise coordination entre les États membres et de faiblesses dans la supervision exercée par la Commission. Le présent rapport propose de refaire un point, en tenant compte des évolutions intervenues depuis lors. Nous avons constaté une nouvelle hausse du coût global des mégaprojets, principalement due à deux d’entre eux, ainsi que des retards supplémentaires qui impliquent que le réseau central de l’UE ne sera pas achevé pour l’échéance de 2030. En 2024, de nouvelles dispositions légales ont été introduites, susceptibles d’améliorer la supervision exercée par la Commission sur la mise en œuvre du réseau, mais ces changements concerneront surtout les projets lancés après les mégaprojets que nous avons audités.

Décembre 2025
Commission européenne (110 pages).

ECO’s 2025 Analytical Report on Skills provides an in-depth analysis of the construction workforce across the EU, examining employment trends, workforce demographics, education and training, and future skills needs. The report explores how skills demand is evolving towards 2030 and 2050 in the context of the green and digital transition, offering valuable evidence to inform policy development and strategic planning in the construction ecosystem.

Décembre 2025
Banque Mondiale (58 pages).

Road networks are critical development lifelines, enabling the movement of people, goods, and essential services and underpinning economic growth and social well-being. Yet these networks are increasingly at risk from aging assets, deferred maintenance, and increasingly severe and frequent climate hazards. Adaptation needs in developing countries are projected to exceed hundreds of billions of dollars annually by 2030, underscoring the importance of directing limited resources toward the most critical and vulnerable sections of a road network.
In this context, effective prioritization of investments, efficient resource allocation, and strengthened asset management are essential to delivering value for money. Over the past decade, risk-based road prioritization and transport resilience analysis have evolved from highly specialized studies into practical, scalable approaches that are feasible and cost-effective for most countries, including those with limited data and institutional capacity. Early studies focused mainly on physical exposure and direct asset damage, offering useful but partial insights. More recent approaches increasingly recognize that resilience is multidimensional, encompassing risks at three levels: asset level (e.g., the vulnerability of individual road segments to hazards), system level (network disruption and loss of connectivity), and user level (impacts on people, markets, and essential services).
Drawing on a review of 50 transport resilience studies across the World Bank portfolio, this report finds that, despite wide variation in scope and analytical depth, road assessments generally follow a common sequence of analytical steps: (1) map hazard exposure, (2) assess asset-level vulnerability, (3) analyze system-level criticality and network effects, (4) identify resilience measures, and (5) prioritize interventions through economic analysis.
In practice, not all assessments apply the full sequence. Many studies focus on the earlier steps—typically exposure mapping and asset-level vulnerability analysis—and fewer extend to system-level analysis or economic prioritization This sequence has emerged progressively over time through practical application, enabling assessments to be scaled and adapted to different decision-making needs, data availability, and institutional capacities.
The report highlights two emerging tools that reflect recent advancements in the cost efficiency of resilience analysis. The Global Resilience Index (GRI), developed by the University of Oxford and widely applied by World Bank transport teams, is an open-source geospatial model that facilitates rapid, low-cost vulnerability assessments using open data. Its application in the Kyrgyz Republic and Nigeria demonstrates how the GRI can effectively screen road networks, identify priority segments, and support policy dialogue and the development of Country Climate Development Reports in contexts where data and resources are limited.
The report also highlights the Hazard & Risk Multi-Regional Assessment (HARMA) model, developed by the World Bank transport team. This model supports more in-depth analysis by assessing climate impacts on network performance, estimating economic losses from disruptions, and comparing adaptation options using cost-benefit metrics. A Pakistan case study illustrates how the HARMA model can be applied to prioritize investments, and provide economic justification for resilience interventions.
To facilitate practical application, the report includes a decision tree designed to help users choose between the GRI and HARMA models, depending on the purpose of the analysis, the availability of data, and analytical needs. The decision tree differentiates between rapid screening and diagnostic applications, for which GRI is typically well suited, and investment prioritization and appraisal decisions, where HARMA is more applicable.
This report also shares two additional case studies to highlight applications with distinctive operational value.

Décembre 2025
Forum Economique Mondial (44 pages).

Despite the centrality of water, and the fact that existing circular solutions, technologies and innovative finance are expanding the tools available to modernize water systems, investment remains insufficient. A projected €6.5 trillion infrastructure gap by 2040 could leave billions of people exposed to absent or outdated systems. Responding to calls from leading intergovernmental organizations, this paper amplifies the voice of the global water industry within the World Economic Forum ecosystem. Developed in collaboration with Acea and the University of Cambridge, it quantifies the global infrastructure gap, assesses the socio-economic benefits of closing it, and offers a strategic playbook for advancing equitable access, infrastructure resilience, circularity and innovation. Drawing on 27 best practices, it shows that solutions already exist and can be adapted and scaled. Above all, it calls for coordinated leadership and a renewed commitment to water stewardship.