Addressing Critical Issues for Building Climate Resilient Infrastructure

By Riya Rahiman

Abstract

Infrastructure provides critical social and economic services towards meeting developmental needs of the economy. As infrastructure investments have an economic life expectancy of 30 years or more, infrastructure is sensitive to prevailing climate during construction and to future climate variations and these aspects need to be incorporated in the design. Considering an investment of around US $90 trillion is required for new infrastructure over the next 15 years, it is imperative to build infrastructure that is climate resilient. This brief looks at the key building blocks – adequate finance, enabling environment and technical solutions – for climate resilient infrastructure.