Infrastructure for climate action

Globally, we continue to witness the increasingly destructive impacts of climate change. The heightened frequency and intensity of events such as wildfires, floods, and droughts are exacting a toll on lives, disrupting economies, and eroding development gains painstakingly accrued over years. Compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is grappling with unprecedented challenges that cut across all societies.

As the build-up to COP 26 intensifies, countries are reaffirming their commitments to climate action, including the submission of revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Climate Agreement. Such action not only advances mitigation and adaptation objectives outlined in the agreement but also safeguards and enhances progress towards numerous related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This report underscores the pivotal role of infrastructure in driving climate action and sustainable development. Developed collaboratively by UNOPS, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the University of Oxford, it reveals that infrastructure accounts for 79 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions and absorbs 88 percent of all adaptation costs.

Despite widespread recognition of the imperative for action, policymakers grapple with discerning where resources should be allocated and which practical actions should be prioritized to maximize progress. Drawing from a systematic assessment of global research, this report offers fresh insights to tackle this challenge. Infrastructure’s central significance to climate action and sustainable development is elucidated across three primary dimensions.

The report elucidates that the energy, transport, and buildings sectors, which encompass homes, offices, and schools, are the primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions. With our increasingly interconnected world and the COVID-19 pandemic reshaping work, learning, and social patterns, emissions from the digital communication sector are expected to surge. However, digital systems, by reducing reliance on transport and buildings through measures like remote work, have the potential to offset emissions and decrease overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Moreover, the water sector emerges as pivotal, with 54 percent of all future adaptation costs projected to be allocated to it, exceeding the combined costs of all other sectors. These costs stem from the sector’s hazard protection measures, mitigating risks from floods, sea-level rise, storm surges, and other climate impacts. While traditional built protective infrastructure such as seawalls plays a vital role, nature-based solutions like reforestation and wetlands offer efficient alternatives with multiple co-benefits including carbon sequestration and habitat enhancement.

Additionally, the report underscores the paramount importance of buildings, which exert the most significant influence on the SDGs among all infrastructure sectors. This underscores the imperative to revolutionize building planning, management, and operation by integrating nature-based solutions, sustainable building materials, and enhancing energy efficiency, thereby fostering positive impacts across associated sectors such as energy and water supply.

Furthermore, the report advocates for an integrated approach that acknowledges synergies and trade-offs between sectoral actions to minimize negative side effects while amplifying opportunities for broader sustainable development benefits. Such integration lies at the nexus of climate mitigation, adaptation, and sustainable development, all crucial for realizing the commitments of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement.

Besides built physical assets, nurturing the natural environment and fostering an enabling environment encompassing policy, regulatory, and governance frameworks are pivotal components of the overall infrastructure system. Policies and investments aimed at conserving and enhancing nature are crucial for providing essential services like hazard protection, carbon sequestration, and wastewater treatment while offering myriad co-benefits.

Moreover, strengthening the enabling environment through appropriate policies and investments ensures efficient service delivery, inclusive infrastructure, and fosters action in the built environment. Policymaking that enforces standards ensures that built assets harmonize with nature, don’t saddle future generations with unsustainable burdens, and facilitate the shift towards a circular economy.

The report underscores the urgent need for an integrated pursuit of climate action with other sustainable development objectives, necessitating coordination across multiple practitioners throughout the infrastructure lifecycle to establish, monitor, evaluate, and adapt key objectives. Raising awareness and defining concrete actions for stakeholders are pivotal initial steps towards progress.

Embedding climate action and sustainable development targets across the infrastructure lifecycle is imperative to mobilize diverse actors towards meeting national and international commitments. This entails coordinated support from governments and key stakeholders during strategic planning, project prioritization, and preparation phases.

As the publication emphasizes, action is indispensable across all sectors, urging policymakers to adopt a holistic, systematic, and integrated approach to infrastructure to effect transformative change at scale. National governments, tasked with delivering development objectives, can drive such integration, with infrastructure-specific coordination units proving effective in aligning actions across sectors. Communities of practice that share knowledge and experiences through case studies are vital for demonstrating progress in diverse national contexts.

As we approach the 2030 milestone for achieving the Paris Agreement and SDG targets amid a climate emergency, urgent action is imperative to mitigate climate change and its detrimental impacts while fostering sustainable, resilient, and inclusive development. The research synthesized in this publication underscores the transformative potential of infrastructure investments, identifies sectors with the greatest potential for driving sustainable development, and highlights opportunities for holistic and integrated action to maximize positive impacts. Tangible actions and case studies elucidate actionable pathways, while policy priorities delineate areas for targeted efforts to scale up transformation.

Source:
https://content.unops.org/publications/Infrastructure-for-climate-action_EN.pdf