26 December 2025
4 min read
The UK performs strongly across many innovation measures, but the Global Innovation Index places it near the bottom of the table for infrastructure sustainability. This article looks at why ageing infrastructure, energy-intensive industries and slower adoption of environmental standards are undermining efficiency, despite the country’s strength in research and innovation.
Our recent article on the Global Innovation Index (GII) quite rightly focussed on ‘good news’ for the UK – 1st globally for the H-index, 2nd for University Rankings and – from industrial design to global branding and cultural exports, we’re 3rd.
However – if you look at ‘infrastructure sustainability’ – we’re 98th. That’s not a typo, but it does point to a very specific structural headache for the UK.
The Global Innovation Index doesn’t just look at “green energy” in a vacuum; it measures GDP per unit of energy use and environmental performance relative to industrial growth. Here is why the UK is languishing in the bottom half of the table for this specific metric:
The UK was the first nation to industrialise, which means we are dealing with some of the oldest physical infrastructure in the world. From a Victorian-era power grid that struggles to integrate decentralised renewables to a draughty, inefficient building stock, our “starting point” for sustainability is much further back than peers in Scandinavia or even Singapore. We are spending a fortune just to modernise, whereas newer economies are building green from scratch.
While the UK has been incredibly successful at decarbonising our electricity (moving away from coal), the GII looks at the total energy intensity of our economy. Because we have outsourced much of our light manufacturing and now focus on high-value (but energy-hungry) sectors like data centres, life sciences labs, and advanced aerospace testing, our energy “efficiency” relative to our GDP hasn’t improved as quickly as the index requires to stay competitive.
The index tracks the number of ISO 14001 environmental management certificates issued per billion dollars of GDP. Interestingly, while large UK corporations are excellent at this, the UK’s vast landscape of SMEs has been slower to adopt these formal, documented environmental standards compared to businesses in China, Japan, or Germany. This creates a statistical “drag” on our score.
A significant portion of this score is tied to the sustainability of the transport network. The UK’s reliance on road freight and a rail network that is still only partially electrified compares poorly to the high-speed, fully integrated electric networks found in the “Innovation Leaders” like Sweden or Switzerland.
The 98th-place ranking is an “efficiency” score, not just a “green” score. It tells us that while the UK is brilliant at generating ideas, we are still incredibly wasteful in how we use physical resources and energy to power the economy.
It’s the “leaky bucket” of UK innovation: we are pouring in world-class talent and capital, but losing a significant amount of value through outdated, energy-inefficient systems.
If you have any questions about Innovation Funding or ESG, please contact the ABGi Team. A member of our team will get back to you to discuss your unique needs and explain how we can assist.