Climate change is causing significant damage to infrastructure. Extreme weather is causing severe flooding, extended drought that can lead to wildfires, extreme wind and tidal surges, and is suspected to influence earthquakes and volcanic activity. These natural disasters are increasing in severity and causing significant damage to both built and natural infrastructure. In developing countries, the damages can more impactful and sustained, taking precious resources away from basic human needs and forcing policy makers to make difficult decisions that often place additional demands on multilateral NGOs and DFIs. 

According to the World Bank report Lifelines: The Resilient Infrastructure Opportunity. “The numbers are sobering—direct damage to power and transport systems from natural disasters costs about $18 billion annually across LMICs. Overall disruption to infrastructure ranges from $391 billion to $647 billion a year for households and firms in the same places. It is not all bad news however, as the report also demonstrates the benefits of resilient infrastructure. Building resilience into LMIC infrastructure project planning would result in a net $4.2 trillion over the lifespan of new infrastructure. The total cost to build resilience into infrastructure is manageable, about 3 percent of the overall cost, which is far below the benefits of an effective disaster risk mitigation strategy.”