Working Paper: Financing for Climate and Disaster Resilient Infrastructure: Role of Governance and Regulatory Systems, Innovative PPP Structuring and Learning from the Experience of Climate Finance
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Studies exploring the finance-infrastructure-growth nexus demonstrate that infrastructure investments are sensitive to prevalent climate conditions and future variations (UNDP, 2011). Further, there exists a two-way relationship between climate change and investments in resilient infrastructure. On the one hand, natural disasters damage and disrupt infrastructure services—incurring economic costs of billions of dollars annually. On the other hand, investment decisions about the type of infrastructure made in the present impact the degree of GHG emissions and nations’ preparedness against future natural disasters (IMF, 2021). The lack of attention to climate-resilient infrastructure, as evident in several emerging economies, would mean additional public spending and reallocation of resources from productive capital to adaptation, due to the need for emergency and routine maintenance of non-resilient infrastructure over its lifespan. Retrofitting traditional technologies often requires more investment than ensuring climate-resilient infrastructure from the outset (IMF, 2021). |