## 4 Results
### Translation of National and Regional Policy Ambito into the Projects  
**Australia** had committed to reducing emissions by 26-28% from 2005 levels by 2030 under the Paris Agreement [1]. The country had further set a renewable energy target to reduce carbon emissions [43], and there has also been an ongoing debate around a carbon emission tax. The climate goals of the state of New South Wales were more ambitious than national goals and included a climate change policy plan and a Renewable Energy Action Plan. Carbon reduction in infrastructure projects is, however, primarily driven by individual government agencies. Transport authorities in Australia and New Zealand collaborate in a Transport Authorities Greenhouse Group (TAGG), which has developed joint guidelines and tools, mainly for road construction. In the state of New South Wales, the major public infrastructure client, Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW), had ambitions to drive change in the sustainability field and had developed their own sustainability design guidelines (SDGs) and a carbon estimate and reporting tool (CERT). These ambitions were reflected in the Newcastle Light Rail project. In the Sydney Metro project, ambitions were set even higher, aiming at global leadership. The Sydney Metro Sustainability Manager had been a leading champion in pushing forward the sustainability policies of TfNSW for many years, and described the journey in the following way: \"_We have a major sustainability story [...] as an organization I think the DNA, the natural sort of position is to be world-class [...] so that's our mantra, we want to leave transformative legacies._\" He also emphasized the important role of an ambitious state-level policy to justify requirements and gain support from politicians. The formulation of the procurement requirements in the SMA was described as a strictly hierarchical process, where contract requirements should be possible to backtrack all the way up to the highest strategy level and priced to be approved by the financial board. Moreover, in TfNSW, every new version of the SDGs must be approved by the executive team. **The Netherlands,** in the Climate Act, aims for a reduction of 95% carbon emission by 2050 compared to 1990. The government has encouraged carbon reduction for several years, primarily through soft law policies, such as the general sustainability initiative, Green Deals, where public and private actors form coalitions. The main public road and waterways client, Rijkswaterstaat (RWS), has a history of being a leading client and the interviewees perceived that there is a direct relationship between the government goals to be fossil free and carbon neutral by 2050, RWS sustainability goals, and the specific project goals. RWS aims to take one step forward in each large project in terms of environmental sustainability, including carbon emission reductions. In the relatively early Almere project, however, RWS sustainability goals were not as developed as they are today. Therefore, pressure came from the municipality of Almere, which adopted high sustainability goals, as they were to host an international horticultural exposition in 2022. The road construction project became an integral part of their sustainability work. In **Sweden**, the goals (officially taken in 2019) state that Sweden will have net zero emissions by 2045 and strive for \"negative net emissions\" of carbon emissions from 2045 compared to 1990 [44]. These goals had not yet been decided at the time of the interviews, but both private and public actors anticipated higher goals and were working in that direction. The main infrastructure client, the Swedish Transport Administration (STA), has developed a model to drive carbon emission reduction in their procurements.