The Center for Global Development is a great place to be during the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, when CGD plays host to a series of public and private meetings with senior leaders of multilateral development banks and aid agencies from around the world.
This year, a common theme of those discussions was financing for infrastructure investment in developing countries. I'm disappointed, but not surprised, that these conversations tend to focus exclusively on the need for new bricks-and-mortar infrastructure to meet needs for energy, water, or transport services, and seldom acknowledge the need to maintain the ecological infrastructure that already provides a large portion of those services for many of the world's poor.
But to the extent that environment-related considerations are mentioned at all discussions related to infrastructure in developing countries, it is typically in one of two contexts: either compliance with safeguards -- perhaps put at risk via new infrastructure financing facilities being constructed outside the MDBs - or in relation to the choice between investment in fossil fuel-based versus renewable energy. In light of the recent IPCC Working Group II report, it's surprising how little attention is paid to the role of intact ecosystems in protecting investments in bricks-and-mortar infrastructure in the face of climate change.
What's the link? Perhaps I'm biased - focusing as I do on forests - but having lived in Indonesia for much of the last decade, it's hard not to notice that roads are often blocked by landslides, and houses, roads, bridges, irrigation, and water and sanitation systems are all regularly damaged by flooding. Even harder to ignore is the fact that airports in ...
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