Paving the Way for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure - UN CC:Learn

Executive SummaryYannick Glemarec‘‘Infrastructure playsan important role inthe development ofcountries. In manydeveloping countries,evolving infrastructurecan be particularlyclimate-sensitiveand therefore highlyvulnerable to thedestruction that occursdue to natural disasters.’’Countries across the globe are experiencing extreme weather events that are resulting in catastrophicimpacts to humans and infrastructure, both of which are extremely susceptible to climate variability. Theprimary cause of these tragedies is undoubtedly related to global climate change. In November 2009, thecountry of El Salvador experienced extreme rainfall over the course of two days, 7-8 November, whichcaused severe flooding and landslides in seven of the country’s 14 departments, including San Salvador.The heavy rains killed about 200 people and left thousands of households without homes. Damage toinfrastructure was also high, with 43 bridges destroyed and another 161 damaged. Many communitieswere left without access to transport, communications, electricity and basic services. The damage fromthe rainfall was so significant that it prompted decision makers to take immediate action, and seek internationalpolicy capacity building assistance.In the same year, El Salvador’s Ministry of Public Works (MOP) and Ministry of Environment and NaturalResources (MARN) requested support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) todevelop of a strategic framework for decision-making processes to increase the climate resiliency of infrastructure.The framework would incorporate long-term climate change adaptation (CCA) and immediatedisaster risk management (DRM) into policies for the planning, design, construction (including retrofittingand reconstruction), operation and maintenance of public infrastructure. As part of UNDP’s support toEl Salvador, an international conference on strategies for adapting public and private infrastructure toclimate change was organized in San Salvador on 30 June 2010.The conference highlighted many of the issues related to increasing the climate resilience of infrastructure,including the reality that most long-lived infrastructure decisions — including decisions regardingwater management, transport, energy and urban planning — are climate sensitive and require a significantamount of lead time to implement. This means that action must begin today, before climate risksmaterialize, to protect critical socio-economic infrastructure, and to manage the risks associated with theimpacts of climate change expected to occur by the middle of this century. There is a need to grow investmentsin infrastructure in the coming years to proactively prepare for the future.Yannick Glemarec is Director ofEnvironmental Finance withinthe Environment and EnergyGroup, Bureau for DevelopmentPolicy, UNDP. He is also ExecutiveCoordinator of UNDP-GlobalEnvironment Facility.Infrastructure plays an important role in the development of countries. In many developing countries,evolving infrastructure can be particularly climate-sensitive and therefore highly vulnerable to the destructionthat occurs due to natural disasters. Because these events cut across socio-economic sectors andadministrative jurisdictions, they can jeopardize development objectives in distant places. Public infrastructuretends to be multifunctional in nature and serves a range of diverse stakeholders spread over awide geographic area. It directly or indirectly provides critical services to the area it covers. Interruptions inservices can cause negative economic impacts over a large territory. The lack of reliable services impedesa country’s ability to pursue development goals. For this reason, it is important to incorporate efforts toincrease the climate resilience of infrastructure into development strategies, by taking into considerationthe risks of climate change, such as the UNDP Green, Low-Emission and Climate-Resilient Development(Green LECRD) strategy.xPaving the Way for Climate-Resilient Infrastructure: Conference Proceedings