Science into Practice: Mainstreaming Resilience with Multilateral Development Banks

Abstract:

Climate change is a rapidly emerging priority for economic development, but our framework for how we translate the imprecise findings of climate science into physical investments has proven difficult. Translating uncertainty into infrastructure with all of the quantitative, largely stationary methodologies of economics, finance, and engineering is a risk for both investors and the stakeholders and decision makers seeking the long-term fruit of those investments in energy, urban resilience, ecological sustainability, hunger, and poverty reduction. These challenges are especially for water infrastructure investments, given that the water cycle is sensitive to even modest climate shifts. Traditionally, we have used the past to predict the future through robust approaches to planning and design. Here, we will describe formal systematic attempts to work with both the clear implications of climate change and major banks and their clients seeking to operationalize science into action, governance, and policy, particularly in middle and lower income countries.