Background
The Blue Dot Network was established to tackle the USD 2.5-3.5 trillion global infrastructure investment gap. This new initiative founded by the United States, Australia and Japan will establish a globally recognised seal of approval for major infrastructure projects. It brings together governments, the private sector, and civil society organisations to promote a shared vision of quality infrastructure investment that is open and inclusive, transparent, economically efficient, financially viable, resilient, and environmentally and socially sustainable.
At the request of the founding members of the Blue Dot Network, the OECD, through its Trust in Business initiative, has been engaged to convene a multi-stakeholder network to provide high-level guidance and technical input to operationalise the global certification process and review framework.
Certified Blue Dot Network projects will exemplify quality infrastructure standards as set out in the G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment, the G7 Charlevoix Commitment on Innovative Financing for Development, the IFC Performance Standards, the Equator Principles, and OECD standards. The Blue Dot Network aims to align and operationalise existing global infrastructure standards to form a user-friendly and practical solution to certify sustainable infrastructure projects. For investors, a Blue Dot Network certification will signal high quality projects to help catalyse private infrastructure financing around the world.
Purpose
The purpose of this survey is to solicit the views of the private sector on the needs for and merits of a global certification regime for infrastructure projects. A survey will also be launched for civil society and the public sector. The survey responses will be analysed to assist in assessing demand for a certification regime that operationalises quality infrastructure investment, and informing the broad scope and content of such a regime.
You may want to look at the Frequently Asked Questions for more information on the Blue Dot Network before you begin this survey.
Glossary
G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment: The G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment, developed under the Japanese G20 Presidency and endorsed by G20 Leaders in 2019, provide a voluntary framework to assist countries in pursuing investments that maximise the economic, social, environmental and development impact of infrastructure.
ESG criteria: environmental, social and governance factors that are considered in investment decision-making.
Greenfield project: a greenfield project involves constructing an entirely new asset.
Brownfield project: a brownfield project involves upgrading, rehabilitating or repurposing an existing asset.
Public-Private Partnership (PPP): Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are long term agreements between the government and a private partner whereby the private partner delivers and funds public services using a capital asset, sharing the associated risks. PPPs may deliver public services both with regards to infrastructure assets (such as bridges, roads) and social assets (such as hospitals, utilities, prisons).
Safeguards: Safeguards are policies and processes to prevent and mitigate undue harm to people and their environment throughout the project lifecycle.
Impact investing: Impact investing aims to generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.
Best-in-class: an investment approach that involves selecting companies or assets that exceed pre-defined ESG score thresholds.
Exclusion strategy: An investment approach that excludes specific investments or classes of investment from the investible universe if they involve certain activities based on specific criteria.
Engagement strategy: an investment approach which seeks to influence behaviour or increase disclosure of investees through voting of shares and engagement with companies.
Net-zero emissions: net-zero emissions are achieved when the sum of human-caused greenhouse gas (GHG) that are emitted into and the carbon that is removed from the atmosphere is zero.
Survey Length
This survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.
