Widely utilized across the developed world and continuing to diversify across sectors, public-private partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly attractive to cash-strapped governments looking to maintain public infrastructure investment.

However, PPPs have yet to deliver on their potential for long-term sustainable infrastructure provision, and a substantial rethinking of the business and contractual models are needed to ensure it moves this way in the future. This paper forms a summary of the content and observations outlined in IISDs preliminary investigation into the relationship between PPPs and sustainability principles.