Infrastructure usually involves large investments in assets that are designed to operate over the long term. To date, the design of these facilities typically has assumed a future climate that is much the same as today’s. However, a changing climate and the resulting more extreme weather events mean those climate bands are becoming outdated, leaving infrastructure operating outside of its tolerance levels. This study examines four critical infrastructure systems—the electric power grid; water storage, treatment, and purification; transportation; and telecommunications—to determine how vulnerable global infrastructure is to a changing climate. The findings include the observations that climate change could increasingly disrupt critical systems, increase operating costs, exacerbate the infrastructure funding gap, and create substantial spillover effects on societies and economies.
By Jonathan Woetzel, Dickon Pinner, Hamid Samandari, Hauke Engel, Mekala Krishnan, Brodie Boland, Peter Cooper, and Byron Ruby. McKinsey Insights. August 19, 2020.
