The world has a growing need to cut down on its fossil fuel usage. The goal of reaching net zero by 2050 is increasingly imperilled by the relatively slow progress of the energy transition from more polluting forms of energy to cleaner fuels.

The potential for private investors to work with government in the United States to invest in infrastructure projects has taken big steps forward recently. Some of this is well known — the $1.3 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has been reported heavily, but related legislation and programs with the potential to be more impactful for private investors have flown under the radar.

The world will need to more than double the number of passenger and freighter aircraft by 2041 to meet demand, according to the latest outlook from Airbus. The giant European aerospace company says that nearly 47,000 aircraft will be in service by 2041, up about 105 percent from the 22,880 aircraft that were in service at the beginning of 2020.

Investing in infrastructure represents a unique opportunity for long-term investors to allocate capital at the intersection of environmental, social and economic progress. A 2018 study from the Inter-American Development Bank makes the case that infrastructure has the potential to explicitly and directly support progress toward more than 70 percent of the 169 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets outlined in the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Why do governments need investment data when it comes to infrastructure? Quality data are the bedrock of all good infrastructure decisions, including investment decisions.

At Fitch Solutions, we monitor investments into gigafactory, or electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing plants, in order to track which regions and countries are best equipped to support EV manufacturers and the green transition. This piece serves to highlight some key trends that have emerged in our investment roundup, which we track every half of the year.