Resilience at Scale: How the USG is Building Up Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Systems

Unprecedented times call for new approaches

There is no doubt that we are living in a world with more unpredictable and extreme weather events fueled by climate change. Not only was 2023 the hottest year on record, it was also the first time that the world surpassed a major climate threshold, with average temperatures exceeding 1.5°Celsius (C) over the entire year1. With global average temperatures reaching 1.52°C on an almost daily basis in the second half of 2023, which has continued into 2024, we have stepped over a proverbial line in the sand2. Without concerted work to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, we can only expect global temperatures to increase, jeopardizing international commitments to mitigate climate change.

Increasing temperatures lead to cascading impacts like more extreme storms and flooding. Therefore, it is no surprise that 2023 set records for disasters and extreme weather events. Cyclone Freddy was the longest-lasting, most rapidly intensifying, and most powerful cyclone ever, resulting in almost 1,500 fatalities and untold damage across Madagascar, Malawi, and Mozambique. Here in the United States, there were a record 28 weather and climate disasters in 2023, ranging from wildfires in Hawaii to droughts in California, with a combined price tag of at least $92.9 billion3. Currently, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina are reeling from the back-to-back Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which have tragically taken over 300 lives and look likely to join Katrina, Sandy and Harvey as storms that have caused more than $50 billion in damages each4.

Time is no longer a luxury when considering climate change. The impacts of climate change are being felt now. As Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy John Podesta describes in the Resilience at Scale report, climate impacts will “undermine hard won development gains, exacerbate geopolitical tensions, worsen the food security crisis, and result in greater instability and humanitarian need.5”

As international development professionals, we are working to foster economic development in the countries at the front lines of the climate crisis. These countries are the least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change, yet they are the most vulnerable to and least equipped to adapt to climate change impacts. The challenge is enormous. There is a desperate need to identify more rapid, impactful approaches that allow us to work at scale to address these risks. We believe in the power of partnership and innovation to tackle the challenges of climate change.

Focus on critical infrastructure as the backbone of economic growth

Critical infrastructure, like energy supply and transport networks, is the backbone of economic development, which underpins a functioning society and provides quality of life for its people. The United States Government (USG) partners with low- and middle-income countries to develop reliable critical infrastructure, helping them to build their economies and working to achieve a more peaceful, democratic, and economically vibrant world. However, climate change is putting unprecedented stress on infrastructure, and its impacts will only increase over the decades-long lifespan of infrastructure investments. The U.S. government recognizes the urgent need for a new approach to build more resilient infrastructure systems for the future. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a new report, Resilience at Scale, to outline this paradigm shift to accelerate and scale up resilient infrastructure in developing countries, along with agency commitments to put this thinking into practice.

Resilience at Scale makes the case that, for too long, infrastructure planning and development has focused on developing individual assets, like a road or a building. However, if the systems those assets are part of are not climate resilient, they can still fail. For example, even if a hospital is resilient to flooding, it cannot provide essential services if transportation to the hospital is impeded by flooded roads. To be truly resilient, we need to focus on the resilience of systems, not single assets.

By looking at the entire system that delivers critical infrastructure services, investments can be more strategic. With a systems view, one can determine where investments in individual assets will be most effective in improving and protecting the system as a whole, ensuring that critical services are not disrupted. Taking a systems-level approach results in greater resilience and lower costs over time. It also helps to ensure that infrastructure investments support other development objectives like better access to markets for small business owners, job opportunities for women and youth, and providing clean energy to support marginalized communities while helping countries in achieving their greenhouse gas reductions goals.

Whole of government approach

Resilience at Scale is part of the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE), a whole-of-government effort that unites the development, diplomatic, scientific, and technical expertise across the USG to help more than half a billion people in developing countries adapt to and manage the impacts of climate change by 2030.

This effort is a product of the PREPARE infrastructure working group, which involved significant collaboration across agencies to identify this opportunity and drive a key initiative that promotes resilient infrastructure. MCC and USAID are pleased to stand alongside agency partners the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) in implementing a systems approach in U.S. government funded infrastructure overseas. These departments and agencies commit to:

• Consistently consider infrastructure systems resilience
• Collaborate across PREPARE to achieve systems resilience, initially targeting specific geographies, and
• Learn by doing, identifying, refining, and sharing good practices

Working with our country, donor, and private sector partners, we can help achieve resilience at scale across sectors and systems. There is important work to be done, so we are rolling up our sleeves and digging in to achieve the goals of this initiative! Join us as we scale up our efforts to build a resilient future.

To learn more about why a systems approach to infrastructure planning is critical, read the report and view the launch event panel discussion. To participate in the conversation, join us at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan on November 14th from 2:15 to 3:00 pm AZT at the U.S. Center or virtually the U.S. Center YouTube channel.