Policy Brief 

This special issue of Network Industries Quarterly is dedicated to the greening of infrastructure assets. Despite the unprecedented challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Commission has reaffirmed its commitment to the objectives of the European Green Deal and to transforming Europe into the first climate neutral continent by 2050.

In this special issue we focus on the digitalisation of infrastructure. Digitalisation is, of course, transforming all kinds of industries. Content industries (music, newspapers, the audiovisual sector and so on) were the first to be digitalised and then disrupted by digital platforms. Network industries are also now being digitalised, in distinctive ways.

In this special issue we explore the links between infrastructure sectors, especially in terms of regulating interfaces between the different sectors and regulating more integrated and converging sectors.

This special issue of Network Industries Quarterly is dedicated to the European Green Deal and its implications for the transport sector. In its long-term decarbonisation strategy ‘A Clean Planet for All,’ the European Commission paints a clear picture of the vast transformations that will have to take place across all sectors of the economy for Europe to become climate neutral by 2050. In its subsequent European Green Deal, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reinforces this ambition and pledges to enshrine the climate neutrality objective into legislation.