Keynote address by Ashok Lavasa, ADB Vice President for Private Sector Operations and Public–Private Partnerships, at the Climate Crisis 2.0: Mobilizing Finance for Coastal Cities International Conference, 12 May 2022
Good morning and greetings to all of you. Thank you for inviting me to speak at this conference.
Let me begin by recalling COP 21, the Paris climate change negotiations in which I was leading the official Indian delegation as Secretary, Environment, Forest and Climate Change in Government of India. As Day 1 ended news began to reach us that Chennai, Thiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts received unprecedented rainfall in a short duration that led to devastating flash floods causing major damages to irrigation infrastructure, roads and public amenities as well as loss of human lives and livestock. Though the unusually heavy rainfall during the winter of 2015 has been attributed to El Nino effect, many believe that the flooding as a "man-made disaster".
I felt that through that catastrophe Nature was sending a message to COP 21. It is the same message that I saw in a quote that I read yesterday “We are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we are the last generation that can do something about it.”
I would like to believe that this conference is a step in the direction of “doing something about it.”
The theme of this conference is timely. We all know the urgency of tackling climate change and the recently released 2022 IPCC Report has underscored this urgency, stating that if global warming is not limited, the world “will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.”
In a report released yesterday the United Nations has warned that the frequency and duration of droughts will continue to increase due to human-caused climate change, with water scarcity already affecting 2.3 billion people across the world, with that number expected to double by 2050. Although no region is spared from drought, the report noted that Africa is the hardest hit continent, with the Americas, India and Australia also highlighted as areas of particular current and future concern. India saw a drought-related shrink of 5% to its gross domestic product between 1998 and 2017 and Australia’s agricultural productivity slumped 18% between 2002 and 2010 due to drought.
Coastal cities and settlements are on the climate change frontline. They are our first line of defense, facing some of the highest climate risks. Nearly 11% of the global population, about 896 million people, live on low-elevation coasts directly exposed to climate and non-climate coastal hazards. These cities and settlements are growing rapidly as people move to the coast. Resilient and sustainable coastal livelihoods depend on maintaining diverse, productive, and healthy coastal ecosystems in the face of global climate change. Coastal settlements also play a key role in advancing climate-resilient development because they are critical for national economies and global maritime trade. Damage to ports could severely compromise global supply chains and maritime trade, with potentially major geo-political and economic ramifications.
Even if we collectively manage to keep global temperatures from rising to 2°C, by 2050 at least 570 cities and some 800 million people will be exposed to rising seas and storm surges. And it is not just people and real estate that are at risk, but roads, railways, ports, underwater internet cables, farmland, sanitation and drinking water pipelines and reservoirs, and even mass transit systems. While some coastal cities and nations will literally disappear, the rest will need to adapt, and quickly. Coastal flooding events could threaten assets worth up to 20% of the global GDP by 2100.
Sea-level rise constitutes a chronic adaptation challenge. It requires dealing with slow-onset changes in parallel with increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme events that will escalate in coming decades. At centennial timescales, projected sea-level rise constitutes an existential threat for many island nations, low-lying coastal zones and their communities, infrastructure, and cultural heritage. But coastal cities are also where transformative climate-resilient development can happen.
The IPCC report identifies five core conditions for coastal cities and settlements to fulfill their role in climate-resilient development:
- Take a long-term perspective when making short-term decisions by keeping options open to adjust as sea-level rises and avoiding new development in high-risk locations,
- enable more effective coordination by establishing networks across different governance levels and policy domains to build trust and legitimize decisions,
- reduce social and climate injustice by taking historical conditions, including past emissions, and prevailing political realities into account and proactively reducing vulnerability and inequity,
- strengthen local democracy by facilitating participation, involving stakeholders early and consistently through to implementation, with particular attention to engaging Indigenous people and marginalized and vulnerable groups, and
- develop governance capabilities to tackle complex problems by drawing on multiple knowledge systems, including local, and scientific knowledge to co-design more acceptable and effective responses.
At the Asian Development Bank, we focus on providing assistance in all five of these core areas. One of our key operational priorities is tackling climate change, building climate and disaster resilience, and enhancing environmental sustainability. In October 2021, ADB raised its target for climate financing for developing member countries from $80 billion to $100 billion during 2019–2030. The additional $20 billion will provide support for the climate agenda in five main areas, one of which includes a scale-up of transformative adaptation projects. Projects in climate-sensitive sectors, such as urban, agriculture, and water, will be designed with a primary purpose of effective climate adaptation and enhanced resilience. Specific to coastal areas and settlements, we have several projects, programs, funds, and facilities, including the Urban Financing Partnership Facility, which help our developing member countries in building the resilience of their coastal cities.
One recent project is the Coastal and Sustainable Fisheries project announced in May 2022. ADB will disburse $100 million loans and grants to implement the Coastal and Sustainable Fisheries project for economic development in provinces in Cambodia. The project involves building quality and climate resilient fishing ports to improve marine activities for the community as well as waste management in the sea. The project would also help Cambodia manage the marine ecosystem, improve coastal infrastructures, and establish funding to support the private sector in coastal areas.
Another project focusing on coastal development is the Bangladesh Coastal Towns Climate Resilience project. In this project, ADB is working with the Government of Bangladesh to develop climate-resilient infrastructure in eight vulnerable coastal pourashavas (secondary towns). The project takes a holistic and integrated approach to urban development and will (i) provide climate-resilient municipal infrastructure; and (ii) strengthen institutional capacity, local governance, and public awareness for improved urban planning and service delivery considering climate change and disaster risks.
While helping our developing member countries in building coastal resilience as mentioned in the previous examples, ADB follows a nature-based approach. Nature-based solutions are based on the notion that when ecosystems are healthy and well-managed, they provide essential benefits and services to people, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, securing safe water resources, making air safer to breathe, or providing increased food security. ADB believes a nature-positive approach can transform energy, infrastructure, and transport in urban areas in ways that build greater resilience, enrich biodiversity, store carbon, and meet development needs. Nature-positive approaches challenge conventional urban governance, spatial planning, traditional engineering, and even capital markets by offering broad opportunities for greater resilience. Just as urban development is multi-sectoral, so nature-based urban development can contribute to the broad Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. Nature-positive approaches support SDG 11 to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. They also answer SDG 13’s call for urgent action on climate change. Nature-positive approaches offer new levels of protection against climate impacts, more equitable access to natural environments for good health and well-being, and reliable infrastructure.
ADB works with coastal cities in enhancing their coastal resilience through nature-based and integrated solutions. This includes (i) supporting the preparation of integrated plans and investments for building coastal resilience through nature-based and sustainable solutions; (ii) identifying the necessary policies and investments to enhance coastal resilience and sustainably manage coastal ecosystems, including identifying sustainable coastal livelihood and economic development opportunities with special attention to vulnerable groups and women’s empowerment; (iii) preparing projects and investments; (iv) improving the understanding of coastal resilience solutions know-how and the role and value of coastal ecosystems; and (v) promoting regional cooperation on coastal and marine ecosystems as regional public goods.
One example of this integrated planning approach is ADB providing support to the Government of Vanuatu to prepare a coastal resilience roadmap for Fatumaru Bay (Port Vila), promoting the use of nature-based solutions and identifying the necessary investments to strengthen the resilience of the Port Vila coastal area, including the identification of necessary measures to sustainably manage Fatumaru coastal ecosystems to promote nature-based coastal livelihoods and economic development opportunities, with special attention to vulnerable groups and women’s empowerment.
In the Republic of the Marshall Islands, ADB will support the preparation of conservation and resource management plans, consolidate and standardize all the data produced during the process to identify potential patterns (stressors, responses, impacts, resilience), provide complementary findings for the preparation of the Marshall Islands national adaptation plan, and strengthen the link and feed of information from the community level to the national level.
In Indonesia, ADB will support the revision of Indonesia’s National Flood Works Guidelines, which include coastal flooding, and will support and advise the government in their upgrading.
The Pacific Island developing member countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change, with 90% of Pacific Islanders living within 5 km of the coast, excluding Papua New Guinea. Recognizing these challenges, ADB has designed a development approach that recognizes and incorporates the challenges of these countries. This development approach is contained in an ADB paper released in June 2021 – the Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations and Small Island Developing States approach, or FSA, and is based on a concept of specific tailored approaches, built on flexibility, and driven by innovation. This includes not adhering to a one-size-fits-all template for development and being open to innovative projects which include financial modalities and technological advancements.
One example is the work ADB has done to assess climate change and disaster risks in Tonga. To better understand and prepare for disaster risks and the impacts of climate change, the Government of Tonga and the Asian Development Bank commissioned a Multi Hazard Climate and Disaster Risk Assessment in 2020 that analyzed thousands of buildings, roads, power, and water assets in the island of Tongatapu. A risk index was developed from the assessment, which showed areas in Tongatapu that are at high risk to the impacts of climate change and will be subject to frequent or permanent flooding. The report also showed relatively safe areas that can be developed into resilient communities.
The coastal areas of India are densely populated, and around 30 per cent of its human population is dependent on coastal and marine resources. Over 250 million people live within a distance of 50 km from the coast, and a large proportion of them are in metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The coastal population largely relies on fishing, agriculture, tourism, ports, maritime shipping, etc. for their livelihoods. Of these activities, the fisheries sector provides employment to more than 14 million people and accounts for about 1.0 per cent of India’s total GDP and 5.4 per cent of total agricultural GDP. The coastal and marine biodiversity is a strategic natural asset, providing a wide range of goods and services in India.
ADB has spearheaded several projects to tackle climate change in coastal regions in India. In 2021, ADB approved a $251 million loan for urban flood protection and management in the Chennai–Kosasthalaiyar river basin in India. Chennai’s rapid urbanization has encroached on the city’s natural landscape, reducing water bodies and water retention capacity. The city is relatively low and flat, located on the highly exposed southeast coast. This makes the city vulnerable to widespread flooding that results in loss to the economy and livelihoods. The project will establish climate-resilient urban flood protection infrastructure. It will construct new stormwater drains, rehabilitate, or replace existing stormwater drains, improve stretches to enhance water-carrying capacity, and upgrade a stormwater pumping station and construct a new one. It will also construct catchpits in roadside drains to recharge the groundwater aquifer and rehabilitate four disaster relief camps. Flood preparedness will be strengthened by developing guidelines to integrate flood hazard zoning into spatial and land use planning; implementing a flood citizen observatory for real-time information in flood areas; and creating a manual for green infrastructure design, including rainwater harvesting.
In addition, the project aims to enhance stakeholders’ involvement in flood preparedness by raising community knowledge and awareness of flood risks and impacts and its relationship with solid waste management, sewerage, and protection of water bodies. Technical staff of the Greater Chennai Corporation will also be trained on planning and design of stormwater drainage systems and management of solid waste and flood risks.
Coastal areas of the country though unparalleled repositories of biodiversity and source of livelihoods for millions of people that live in the area, are also faced with a number of challenges, including waste water discharges from coastal aquaculture; solid waste from land-based sources; microplastics in the oceans; unplanned coastal tourism; harmful fishing practices; multiple uses of coastal spaces leading to soil accretion and/or erosion; and climate change being an additional stressor.
ADB is helping protect India’s coastline affected by erosion through the Sustainable Coastal Protection and Management Investment Program. The project will reduce coastal erosion and instability in the western coastal states of Goa, Karnataka, and Maharashtra. It focuses on solutions that protect the coastal environment, as well as support private sector and community involvement in protection and management activities. The Program aims to address immediate coastal protection needs and coastal instability using environmentally and socially appropriate solutions, with a focus on softer options such as artificial reefs, beach nourishments, and dune management. The program also aims to protect the coastline from erosion and in so doing enhances income-generating opportunities for coastal communities. Activities will include: (i) addressing immediate coastal protection needs; (ii) capacity building and institutional development; (iii) modeling and other analytical works to assess the impacts of climate change on selected sections of the coast; and (iv) comprehensive nearshore seabed sand resources analysis designed to assess the issues of sand deficits of selected beaches. It will continue to support strengthening of the executing agency on the long-term activities on coastal planning and management that would continue after the end of the project period. India is one of the megadiverse countries of the world with its dense and handsome mangrove forests of Sundarbans inhabiting globally threatened species such as the Royal Bengal tiger, fishing cat, estuarine crocodile and river terrapin; world's largest congregation of nesting turtles in Odisha; beautiful seagrass beds in Palk Bay and the enigmatic sea mermaids in the Gulf of Mannar; majestic whale sharks in the Gulf of Kachchh; and some of the world's most beautiful and striking coral reefs. We must do everything possible to protect this wealth of nature.
As detailed out in the previous examples, ADB is implementing a multi-pronged strategy to assist our developing member countries in tackling climate change in coastal cities. In addition to providing the financial assistance to make coastal infrastructure climate resilient, ADB also ensures that local stakeholders are involved through raising awareness, knowledge sharing and capacity building. I repeat that it is crucial to take the long-term perspective when designing climate resilient infrastructure. It is also important to strengthen local democracy by facilitating discussion and coordination amongst stakeholder groups, and this conference is a valuable arena to spearhead this discussion. As Jochen Zeitz, President and CEO of Harley-Davidson said, “Sustainability is no longer about doing less harm. It’s about doing more good.”
I look forward to the deliberations at this Conference adding to the momentum of “doing good” for a sustainable future.
I thank you for your patience and leave you with what Edmund Burke, the Irish philosopher said, “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” Thank you.