We previously focused on the investment potential of private infrastructure, spanning cutting-edge transport networks, transformative energy transition projects, data centres and essential services such as education and healthcare. We now move from the structural backdrop to the practical question of how investors can work through the variety of options available.

Infrastructure is the world of energy grids, rail networks, water supply systems, mobile masts, and data centres that keep daily life running and our societies thriving. Private infrastructure brings these essential physical structures facilities and systems into focus.

This week I attended the 14th UN Forum on Business and Human Rights - the annual congregation of investors, governments, civil-society groups, trade unions, pension funds and other actors who fuss and fret over the sometimes-challenging marriage between corporate behaviour and human rights. It is a field that owes much of its modern momentum to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, endorsed in 2011, which jolted social issues from the periphery into the mainstream of responsible business practice.