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Weak adaptation plans, undefined roles and responsibilities, and a lack of systems thinking are among the challenges preventing governments from delivering climate-resilient infrastructure, according to a new report.
In its latest policy paper, the UK-based Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) explores the governance structures, policy frameworks and funding approaches meant to drive infrastructure climate resilience. The report finds that better coordination, planning and evaluation is needed if major projects that promote sustainability are to be delivered.
“Climate resilience is an urgent and complex global challenge, requiring effective governmental structures to mitigate risks, adapt to climate change, and ensure the sustainability of infrastructure, nature, and communities,” the report states.
“Different countries have adopted distinct approaches to climate resilience, with governance models ranging from centralised policymaking to decentralised community-led initiatives. Understanding these variations and their effectiveness is vital for improving climate resilience strategies globally.”
The report cites eight challenges to delivering infrastructure climate resilience, including siloes within and between different levels of government, a reactive rather than proactive approach to adaptation, a lack of clear accountability, and a tendency to employ “non-actionable policies”.
Adaptation efforts “involve many actors at different levels, but mandates can be undefined or overlapping. Often, no single entity is fully in charge of adaptation, and there is no clear accountability. Without clear mandates and coordination, adaptation falls through the cracks,” it says.
In addition, national adaptation plans and regulations can be “vague and piecemeal, lacking measurable targets and secured funding, so they remain statements rather than encouraging action”.
It advocates embedding clear and measurable adaptation goals and concrete targets linked to committed budgets which it says can help translate policy into action while ensuring robust monitoring and evaluation.
Further, the creation of a central authority “could unify adaptation planning, ensure policy consistency, and enhance coordination”, it says.
It also points to short political and planning cycles as an obstacle but says that setting long-term adaptation targets and requiring regular reporting on them can help to ensure “continuity beyond electoral cycles”, and cites Canada’s National Adaptation Strategy and the Netherlands’ Delta Programme as examples.
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Built to ‘withstand and recover’
According to the OECD, climate-resilient infrastructure is infrastructure that is planned, designed, constructed and operated in a way that anticipates, prepares for and adapts to the changing climate, and can withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions caused by changing climatic conditions throughout its lifetime.
The term applies to both new assets and existing ones, which may need to be retrofitted or operated differently to account for climate change impacts.
If governments are to strengthen global infrastructure climate resilience, the report says that they should embed climate risk into infrastructure planning to address current and future risks, and establish clear roles and leadership to coordinate infrastructure resilience across all levels of government and avoid fragmentation.
It says public funding should be “aligned with resilience goals and reform appraisal methods to reflect long-term benefits and avoided damages”, and calls for incentives and regulation that attract private investment in resilient infrastructure.
Local authorities should have access to dedicated funding, tools and training to enable them to implement effective adaptation plans, and efforts should be made to engage communities to build public support and integrate local knowledge.
It also calls for climate risk disclosure and mandated resilience standards to improve transparency.
Read more: COP30 president calls for new governance mechanisms in climate change fight
UK actions
Though the policy paper includes case studies from the US, Australia, New Zealand and Denmark and its findings are applicable to governments worldwide, it outlines how the recommendations could be applied in the UK through nine actions.
These include assigning cross-government responsibility for resilience beyond the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; launching a national review of adaptation economics to ensure decisions reflect full long-term value; and using the Spending Review (taking place tomorrow, 11 June) to “allocate sufficient resources for proactive adaptation and treat resilience as a national investment priority”.
The report combines insights from government officials, private sector stakeholders, infrastructure experts, and international and non-profit organisations with a review of government documents, policy reports and other materials.
Read more: UK launches resilience academy and data tool to prepare for future crises