An infrastructure project that is designed and built after factoring in the possible climate change disruptions is considered a climate-resilient Infrastructure1. Climate resilient infrastructure includes structures in the built environment that are capable of adapting themselves to and recovering from extreme climate events. The defining feature of climate-resilient infrastructure is that it is planned, designed, built and operated in a way that anticipates, prepares for, and adapts to changing climate conditions. It can also withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions caused by these climate conditions.
India is the third most vulnerable country to climate induced natural disasters2. The country has been experiencing the ill effects of climate change, including more frequent and severe floods, droughts and heat waves. These extreme events have caused large scale damage to infrastructure, disrupting livelihoods, and displacing people. India's nine coastal states, which contain critical infrastructure, collectively attract more than 60%3 of India's FDI inflow. Gains so far, are being threatened by the impacts of climate change, including sea-level rise, floodings, storm surges and cyclones. An increase in greenhouse gas emissions, from the economic activities, is expected to aggravate the impacts of climate change and the vulnerability of coastal ecosystems.
Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW)4 has carried out a first-of-its-kind district-level climate vulnerability assessment, or Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI), in which it analysed 640 districts in India to assess their vulnerability to extreme weather events such as cyclones, floods, heatwaves, droughts, etc.
With India being so prone to climate vulnerabilities, the government is working to mainstream climate change considerations into all infrastructure planning and development stages. This includes issuing guidelines, conducting climate risk assessments, developing climate-resilient design standards, and training engineers and planners on climate change adaptation.
The Indian government's efforts to build climate-resilient infrastructure are essential to protecting the country's highly capital intensive infrastructure from devastation related to climate events. Both Central and state governments are taking steps to build climate resilience in new infrastructure projects.
Some of the key initiatives that are being taken by the government to bolster efforts towards climate resilience are as follows:
- The Government of India has established National Adaptation
Fund on Climate Change (NAFCC)5 and Climate Change
Action Programme (CCAP)6 as financing initiatives
dedicated to climate change. The NAFCC was established in 2015 by
the Government of India to provide financial assistance for climate
change adaptation projects. The objective of this fund is to scale
up climate change adaptation interventions by financing programmes
based on climate scenario and vulnerability analysis. The fund is
administered by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural
Development (NABARD). This fund also supports capacity building of
key stakeholders for planning, implementing, and monitoring climate
adaptation measures. The fund has so far approved over 100
projects, with a total value of over $1 billion in a variety of
sectors, including agriculture, water resources, coastal
management, and urban development. NAFCC has so far financed a
number of important projects that are helping to make India's
infrastructure more resilient to the impacts of climate
change.
Climate Change Action Programme (CCAP) aims to increase scientific and analytical capacity and the institutional framework on climate change and support the implementation of climate-related actions at the national and state levels. It also supports states in the implementation of pilot initiatives envisaged under the State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCCs).
India has been receiving support from various multilateral and bilateral agencies to meet the challenges posed by climate change. The World Bank, ADB, UNDP, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), KFW and UK's FCDO, amongst others, have been funding projects related to water, agriculture, energy, coastal zone management and disaster risk reduction.
- The National Disaster management Authority (NDMA) is a statutory body that was established by the Government of India in 2005. The authority is responsible for coordinating disaster management efforts in India.The NDMA has developed a number of guidelines7 for building climate-resilient infrastructure. These guidelines cover a wide range of topics, including:
- The design of infrastructure to withstand extreme weather events
- The use of climate-resilient materials in construction
- The development of contingency plans for dealing with climate change impacts
- The NDMA's guidelines are an important resource for government officials and private sector stakeholders who are responsible for designing, building and operating infrastructure assets.
- The Union Ministry of Finance has been instrumental in developing and implementing India's climate change policies. The ministry has issued a number of guidelines8 on climate risk management for infrastructure projects. These guidelines cover a wide range of topics, including:
- The identification of climate risks
- The assessment of the likelihood and severity of climate risks
- The development of mitigation and adaptation measures
- The Ministry of Finance's guidelines are an important resource for government officials and private sector stakeholders who are responsible for managing climate risk in infrastructure projects.
All of the above initiatives are playing an important role in helping India to build climate-resilient infrastructure. The NAFCC along with bilateral and multilateral agencies are providing financial assistance for adaptation projects; the NDMA is developing guidelines for building climate-resilient infrastructure and the Ministry of Finance is issuing guidelines on climate risk management. These initiatives are helping to ensure that India's infrastructure is able to withstand the impacts of climate change and continue to support economic growth and development.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (Government of India) launched the "ClimateSmart Cities Assessment Framework"9 (CSCAF) in cooperation with the Federal Government of Germany in February 2019. The CSCAF is a tool that helps cities assess their progress towards becoming climate-smart. The CSCAF covers five key areas: Energy and Green Buildings, Urban Planning, Green Cover and Biodiversity, Mobility and Air Quality, and Water Management.The CSCAF uses a set of indicators to assess each of these areas.The indicators are designed to be measurable and comparable so that cities can track their progress over time.The CSCAF also includes a set of best practices that cities can use to improve their performance.The CSCAF is a valuable tool for cities that are committed to becoming climate-smart.
India has also launched international coalitions, including the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI). Initiatives such as Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) and Green Grids Initiative—One Sun One World One Grid (GGI-OSOWOG) were launched at the COP26 conference in Glasgow in November 2021. Additionally, India co-leads the Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) with Sweden, focusing on low-carbon transitions in hard-to-abate sectors.
Additionally OECD provides guidance on how to overcome financing challenges for climate-resilient infrastructure challenges by:
- Providing clear and stable climate policies that support investment in climate-resilient infrastructure.
- Developing innovative financing mechanisms that can attract private investment in climate-resilient infrastructure.
- Providing technical assistance to governments and investors to help them assess the risks and returns of climate-resilient infrastructure projects.
Impact on the Ground
According to the World Bank, the Indian road sector is undergoing a transformation to incorporate resilience planning and climate-friendly transportation designs. The Green National Highways Corridor Project (GNHCP) is a 500 million USD initiative aiming to construct about 800 km of climate-resilient highways across Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh by 2024. Additionally, Chennai is working on enhancing urban transport resilience through the Chennai City Partnership (CCP).
The Chennai Metro Rail project is being designed to be climate resilient. The project includes measures such as building elevated sections of the metro to protect them from flooding and using water-resistant materials in the construction.
The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) is also being designed to be climate resilient. The project includes measures such as building roads and bridges that can withstand extreme weather events and developing contingency plans for dealing with climate change impacts.
The Indian government is actively investing in research and development to develop new technologies that can help make infrastructure more climate resilient like funding research on new materials that can withstand extreme weather events, and on new ways to manage water resources in a changing climate scenario.
India has a significant opportunity to scale up climate financing to fund transportation projects that prioritize resilience to climate shocks. The National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) projects nearly 4,000 transport development opportunities worth USD 955 billion by 2025. The World Bank's Climate Action Roadmap for South Asia will aid India in identifying and prioritizing sustainable, resilient transportation projects. Furthermore, India's membership in the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) will help mainstream climate considerations in infrastructure development.
Challenges that Remain
However, a pre-requisite for adaptation planning and implementation is sufficient adaptation finance. For developing countries the adaptation finance is sought as much from the international sources as from a country's budgetary allocation, as per the spirit of the Paris Agreement. While the global figure for adaptation finance increased in 2017- 18 to USD 30 billion from USD 22 billion in 2015-16 (35% increase), it still falls short of the average estimated requirement of USD 180 billion for the period 2020-2030. Arranging adaptation finance is one of the major challenges for developing countries, which are often amongst the most vulnerable. Despite their adaptation costs being relatively lower than that of developed countries in absolute terms, the burden of that cost weighs heavier due to constrained financial, technical and human capacities.
As reported in a study by the United Nations, the damage caused by Cyclone Amphan to the infrastructure in Eastern India in the year 2020, was a whopping USD 14 billion. It is said to be the costliest cyclone to hit the region. The escalating economic cost of these natural calamities need to be arrested by incorporating resilience building and adaptation action in the overall governance and development policy framework of the country.
The growing need for adaptation finance has been recognized under Article 7 of the Paris Agreement, which establishes the global goal of increasing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing vulnerability to climate change. The Agreement10 creates and obligation on developed countries to support the efforts of developing country, under Articles 9 (finance), 10 (technology) and 11 (capacity building). Reducing climate vulnerability and improving climate resilience has become a dire need of the hour and is extremely critical to increasing the efficacy of response and recovery to climate shocks.
Footnotes
1. https://www.oecd.org/environment/cc/policy-perspectives-climate-resilient-infrastructure.pdf
5. https://www.nabard.org/content.aspx?id=585
6. https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/budget2019-20/economicsurvey/doc/vol2chapter/echap05_vol2.pdf
7. https://ndma.gov.in/sites/default/files/PDF/ndmp-2019.pdf
8. https://dea.gov.in/sites/default/files/Sub%20Committee%20Report%2019062020.pdf
9. https://mohua.gov.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/NMSH-2021.pdf
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