Infrastructure assets will be a major component in which countries will be address their global climate commitments, as well as mitigating and adapting to climate change. Infrastructure and climate resilience are closely linked. Climate change poses direct and indirect risks to infrastructure assets and service provision, such as when roads melt, reservoirs run dry and tunnels flood. Infrastructure can also exacerbate climate-related risks. Sparks from electrical transmission lines, for example, can ignite wildfires, and heavy rains can set off catastrophic dam failures. Finally, climate change will create new demands for infrastructure, such as reinforcement of flood defences. Given these challenges, there is an urgent need to make climate resilience standard practice for infrastructure. Choices made today about infrastructure provision will have impacts for decades to come; it is vital to build resilience rather than lock in vulnerability.

Similarly, there are increasing considerations towards environment, social and governance (ESG) factors, and how this is being implemented will inform investor and financing decisions. There is a compelling economic argument for investing in sustainable and resilient infrastructure. Well-targeted and timely investments can help protect lives and livelihoods, improve service reliability, reduce maintenance, extend asset lifetimes and generate co-benefits. Every dollar invested in climate-resilient infrastructure yields about four dollars of benefits.