The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) have announced their strategic partnership to promote and mainstream climate-proofing of Infrastructure (CPI) through research and knowledge sharing for CDRI member countries especially the Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, as part of the partnership, will enable CEEW to support the implementation of CDRI’s strategic goals to promote disaster and climate resilience of critical infrastructures and enhance national and regional infrastructure standards and guidelines across the most vulnerable regions.
“We don’t have a lot of time on our hands. Especially Small Island Developing Countries, where immediate action is required, and resilient infrastructure needs to be prioritized. Through this MoU, we will be able to conduct joint research, build capacity development programmes and leverage expertise on various topics that are critical to addressing increasing climate and disaster risks to infrastructure. As we start to identify areas of collaboration, we need to focus on actionable research,” said Mr. Amit Prothi, Director General, CDRI.
“Integrating resilience into infrastructure systems needs to be a driving force behind the policies and investments in infrastructure globally. CDRI is a platform to promote knowledge exchange, and technical support through partnership and capacity development to enable countries to build their own systems, capabilities and standards for disaster resilient infrastructure.
“We welcome this partnership with CEEW to support the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and other vulnerable countries identify and devise a common framework to mainstream disaster and climate resilience for infrastructure development,” said Mr. Kamal Kishore, Indian Co-Chair of CDRI’s Executive Committee and Member Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority, Government of India.
“CEEW is delighted to partner with CDRI in this endeavour to devise solutions to mitigate the impacts of adverse climate events on critical infrastructure. In the post-pandemic era, countries across the world are stepping up investments in infrastructure projects to drive economic recovery. This infrastructure needs to be protected against climate shocks in order to ensure long-term economic prosperity.
“Climate change is knocking on our doors and vulnerable countries in the developing world need to ramp up climate action to protect their communities and economies. Therefore, this partnership between CDRI and CEEW would help climate-vulnerable countries deliver on both economic growth and climate action,” said Dr. Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water.
The CDRI-CEEW partnership is premised on the recognition that SIDS are at different stages of addressing the developmental challenges and the institutional arrangements. This would help identify the evolving climate risk landscape and integrate climate-proofing of infrastructures to its development goals.
CEEW’s Climate Risk Atlas would also help devise a common climate-proofing framework and tool that can be used by developing countries to enhance their capacity to climate-proof its critical infrastructure and promote nature-based solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate risks. CEEW will also support the CDRI’s biennial Flagship Report on Disaster and Climate Resilient Infrastructure, including the first edition on nature-based solutions.
