This report aims to provide policy makers with a comprehensive examination of “project pipelines”, a common concept in infrastructure planning and investment discussions. It is structured around some basic but important guiding questions, including: What is meant by project pipelines? How can we characterise them? What concrete approaches and actions can governments and other public institutions take to develop project pipelines and mobilise private finance into these projects? Answers to these questions suggest that a pipeline can only be as robust as the investment-ready and bankable projects that constitute it, as effective as institutions that deliver it, and as ambitious as the objectives to which it is linked.

Pipelines of infrastructure projects – or simply “project pipelines” – are a common concept in infrastructure planning and investment discussions. The term “pipelines” is often used to emphasise specific, upcoming investment opportunities, such as low-carbon infrastructure projects to develop renewable energy over the next decade. As such, project pipelines have become a key focal point of countries’ efforts to implement their climate and development commitments, including the Nationally Determined Contributions.

This chapter provides an integrated overview of the report. In particular, the chapter considers the meaning of project pipelines in the context of investments in support of long‑term climate objectives and different aspects of good project pipeline practices. The chapter explores actions governments can take to translate their climate objectives into investment-ready and bankable projects that are attractive to private sector investors. It also examines results from a series of case studies of emerging practices in developing robust project pipelines, highlighting good practices and learning opportunities. To conclude, the chapter identifies areas for future consideration with respect to establishing robust project pipelines.

This chapter explores “project pipelines”, a common concept used in infrastructure planning and investment discussions and government strategies to engage private sector stakeholders and mobilise finance. To begin, the chapter examines what is meant by project pipelines in the context of climate objectives to scale-up investment in low-carbon infrastructure. Important to these objectives is how project pipelines relate to government’s wider investment policy framework and the tools, activities and processes with which governments: disseminate information; highlight investment opportunities; and encourage market actors to engage, commit funding and devote time to executing infrastructure investments. To close, the chapter explores what concrete actions governments can take to build robust pipelines and what factors governments can consider when building such pipelines – the focus of Chapter 3 which includes case studies of emerging good project pipeline practices.

This chapter explores approaches taken by governments and public institutions to build robust project pipelines and align infrastructure investment to long-term climate objectives. Chapter 2 identified concrete government actions and effective factors that can facilitate the development of robust project pipelines, namely: leadership, transparent approaches, prioritisation mechanisms, project support, eligibility criteria and dynamic adaptability. These factors will be reviewed in country- or regional-specific examples of emerging project pipeline practices in Colombia, the European Union, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Viet Nam. By looking at elements, attributes and important applications of these specific factors, the case studies provide models that other countries can consider using or adapting their own pipeline development programmes. In addition, each case study is accompanied by short examples to illustrate how specific pipeline factors are applied in other country settings and contexts. The first section () provides an overview of the case studies and highlights key messages from the case studies that follow.