Keywords

Economic welfare is decreasing day by day; meanwhile, inequalities are increasing. People have problems in reaching their basic needs. One out of every three people in the world does not have access to clean drinking water (“1 in 3 people globally do not have access to safe drinking water – UNICEF, WHO”); 940 million people (13% of the world) live without the miracle of electricity (Ritchie and Roser 2020). According to WHO projections, five billion people will be deprived of health services by 2030 (World Health Organization 2017). This situation started to become much more dangerous, especially in underdeveloped and developing countries. Therefore, world leaders adopted SDG-9 specifically for infrastructure and industrial investments within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to cope with these inequalities and combat climate change through the UN in 2015. In this agenda, developed countries have committed to providing development assistance to developing and underdeveloped countries. Developing and underdeveloped countries need durable infrastructure investments, sustainable industrial breakthroughs and innovative approaches to achieve sustainable economic growth and social and grassroots development and combat climate change within the scope of this SDG. In this direction, governments, non-governmental organisations, the private sector and universities need to find solutions to these problems together.

SDG-9 infrastructure is primarily based on environmental considerations and global commitments and is driven by scientific research and innovation. In 2015, Sweden had an ambitious aim to ramp up investments in solar and wind and clean transport and eliminate fossil fuel within its boundaries. Then the ambition evolved among the European Union, where the member states could provision resources. In 2016, Canada took this ambition a step further by lessening traffic congestion to reduce fuel consumption and air pollution and modernising the workplace to use its office places better. After the initiatives of countries such as Australia, China and India in order, countries worldwide have been triggered to make efforts to build resilient infrastructure and sustainable industries and foster innovation (Saxena 2019).

Access to financial services and markets is crucial for developing countries. These countries need loans and credit for their growth. Surveys covering from 2010 to now show that 34% of small-scale industries in developing countries receive loans or credit, which is for competing in the global market. But, in sub-Saharan Africa, only 22% of small-scale industries benefit from loans or credit (United Nations 2020). According to the World Bank’s data, individuals using the Internet rate of all populations have increased from 20.412% to 48.997%. The average of OECD members is 83%. Even though individuals using the Internet rate is high for OECD members, the average of the least developed countries, which the UN classifies, is 17%. Access to the Internet is still meagre for the least developed countries (International Telecommunication Union Database 2020). Accessing a mobile network is another main parameter. Almost all of the world’s population is covered by mobile networks. It is estimated that 96.5% of the world population is covered by at least 2G communication, and 81% of the world population is covered by the Long-term Evolution (LTE) network (United Nations 2020).

The 5th target is enhancing research and upgrading industrial technologies with the indicators of new product development or established technology and infrastructure and increasing expenditure on R&D (Källqvist 2021). Regarding SDG 9.5, worldwide R&D spending has risen, with R&D investments totalling 1.7% of global GDP in 2014, as stated by the SDG Progress report (United Nations 2021b). For example, R&D expenditure in wealthy nations amounted to 2.4% of GDP, in developing countries 1.2% and in the least developed countries (LDCs) 0.3%. The number of researchers per million is similarly divisive: 1098 researchers worldwide in 2014, 3739 in the millions in the rich nations and just 63 in the millions in the LDCs (International Telecommunication Union Database 2020; United Nations 2021b). According to a UNCTAD media statement released, the research calls for focused investment policies in developing countries to increase connectivity infrastructure, encourage digital enterprises and assist the larger economy’s digitisation (UNCTAD 2021). So, this SDG-9 aims to trigger new action plans according to innovative movements, thanks to contributing to the vast financial resources in most countries, especially developing countries.

SDG-9 is based on three main themes. To provide transportation, information and communication infrastructures, which are an important part of development in line with these goals, the key to sustainable economic growth and raising the welfare level of the society is to develop industrialisation, and new technological developments and new skills in line with innovation are discussed. Figure 11.1 summarises targets of SDG-9.

Fig. 11.1
An illustration of the U N's view of targets of S D G 9 is represented in 8 boxes. Targets 9.1, 9.3, 9.5, and 9.B are on the left boxes. Target 9.2, 9.4, 9.A, and 9. C are on the right boxes. Along the sides of each box are diagrams of each target in a semi-circle.

The targets of SDG-9 (United Nations 2021a)

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Industry-innovation cooperation in the case of developing sustainable infrastructure becomes crucial over the sustainable development goals agenda. Achieving these objective goals complies with the execution of infrastructural enhancement. Economy, environment and society are the three main pillars in focusing on the vital step of implementing innovation and industrial development into societal development (The Economist Intelligence Unit 2019).

In the economic aspect, cases of generating infrastructure linked to the innovative industry are profitable in practical steps that vary from the first area of job creation to producing active industrial links “such as a bridge that links a rural village to urban markets” (The Economist Intelligence Unit 2019). The basis of a healthy economy lies on the ground of sustainable development of creating values. “Concrete, steel and fibre-optic cable are the essential building blocks of the economy” (Puentes 2015). Therefore, generating infrastructure by investing in energy projects, telecommunication systems, pipelines, parks and water systems keep that ground fruitful. While pointing out that economic growth is visibly linked with infrastructural progress, it enables many other goals that depend on it to be actualised and should not be left out unspoken. “[…] sustainable infrastructure enables governments and the private sector to provide […] broader economic growth while improving quality of life and enhancing human dignity” (The Economist Intelligence Unit 2019).

A senior policy analyst in the OECD’s Environment Directorate, Virginie Marchal, says “Infrastructure is really at the centre of the delivery of the SDGs” (The Economist Intelligence Unit 2019). Looking at the main circles of SDGs which are not only focusing on materialistic development but also the reduction of every kind of inequality within nations, providing access through infrastructural development plays an undeniable role. “Infrastructure is a tool in increasing social mobility” (The Economist Intelligence Unit 2019). Access to affordable and fair clean water, food, sanitation, education and employment and gender equality cannot be separated with the pipeline installation, innovative and efficient agriculture developments, construction of education centres in safe walking distances and providing those who are out of employment and boosting new job areas and transportation options.

Through the environmental aspect, with innovative methods, industries are now ready to follow a greener path in which they reduce the harmful impact of their work and, in some cases, even neutralise it. In this case, being the most used by people in industrial outcome, green-focused provided infrastructure enables millions if not billions of people to contribute with or without knowing. To give an example, the Economist Intelligence Unit published data from the USA in which they say that it is estimated that for a person travelling to work back and forth, switching to use public transportation from private may have the power in the reduction of carbon footprint close to 2177.243 km per year (The Economist Intelligence Unit 2019). By actively contributing, green infrastructure installations can also provide quite a beneficial improvement for the environment and directly to the city populations’ life quality. Other data from The Economist Intelligence Unit based on a simulation suggests that, in downtown Toronto, a reduction by 2 °C in the temperature would have been achieved if half of the suitable exteriors were installed with a green roof (The Economist, 2019, p. 8). Innovative developments and simple cases of planting trees and greens also have a huge impact on many lives by being effective protection in the case of natural disasters such as floods and soil erosion.

SDG-9 proposes that industrialisation and technological progress are the basis for growth and that all countries should industrialise sustainably. Investment in infrastructure and innovation are important factors of economic development. Cities now accommodate more than half of the global population. It is now more important than ever to establish new enterprises and develop public transportation and renewable energy and information and communication technologies. Long-term approaches to financial and ecological concerns, such as energy efficiency and employment generation, need innovative transformation. Sustainable development may be fuelled by encouraging sustainable industries, technological research and innovation investment. Several countries across the world are working on SDG-9. Germany’s Chemnitz University of Technology won the German Excellence Initiative with its Merge Technologies for Multifunctional Lightweight Structures research centre (MERGE). In this cluster, seven of Chemnitz University of Technology’s eight faculties, two local Fraunhofer-Institutes as extramural research partners and several industrial partners collaborate in a trans-disciplinary approach to develop new lightweight materials that will allow cars, for example, to lose weight and consume less fuel while conserving natural resources (United Nations 2018).

Another example is the 10th Annual Longjiang Cup, an innovation competition for advanced mapping technology and product information modelling students, held at the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in China. The competition’s goal is to apply the spirit of the government of Heilongjiang Province’s Proposal to Encourage University Graduates’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship. With the involvement of 20 teams comprising of 150 undergraduates from 16 institutions, including HIT, it also seeks to promote students’ inventive abilities (United Nations 2018).

The HLFP (High-level Political Forum) thematic review, released in 2017, emphasises that funding SDG-9 implementation would need large investments in infrastructure and innovation and instances of how SDG-9 expenditures may help other SDGs develop. According to the report, more than 1.1 billion people lack access to electricity, 663 million do not have access to safe drinking water, 2.4 billion do not have adequate sanitation, and one-third of the world’s population does not use all-weather roads. Even though closing these gaps requires infrastructure, innovation and roughly US$1–1.5 trillion per year in developing countries, official development assistance (ODA) to developing countries for economic infrastructure, particularly transportation, totalled around USD 57 billion in 2015 (SDG Progress Report), up 32% from 2010 (United Nations 2017) (International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) 2017).

As a result of investments in local infrastructure and technology (such as water pumps, power, clean cookstoves and mini-grids), local growth may be accelerated and more inclusive. At the same time, efficiency is increased, and repair and maintenance time is reduced. As explained in the review, financing at this level is likewise fraught with difficulties. For example, growing financial services in the agri-food and rural sectors, commonly comprising small-scale operations, present obstacles due to a lack of credit histories and collateral.

11.1 Companies and Use Cases

Table 11.1 presents the business models of 59 companies and use cases that employ emerging technologies and create value in SDG-9. We should highlight that one use case can be related to more than one SDG and it can make use of multiple emerging technologies. In the left column, we present the company name, the origin country, related SDGs and emerging technologies that are included. The companies and use cases are listed alphabetically.Footnote 1

Table 11.1 Companies and use cases in SDG-9
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