Public investments are becoming climate resilient

Context

Many investments in developing countries are exposed to climate risks. Extreme weather events and gradual changes in climate cause damage to infrastructure and disrupt public services. This can have a severe negative impact on a country’s development. Peru, Colombia and Brazil are among the countries most affected by climate change. To minimise climate risks, the governments of the three countries intend to make climate change adaptation measures a binding requirement for public investment projects.

Objective

The ministries of economy, finance and planning in Brazil, Colombia and Peru take account of climate risks and adaptation to climate change when planning public investment projects. This helps to reduce climate-related economic, social and ecological damage to investments.

Approach

The project builds on the experiences gained in the predecessor project in Peru and extends into Brazil and Colombia. In this way, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is fencouraging an exchange of knowledge on climate risk management in Latin America.

The focus in Peru is on investment projects and budget programmes in the agriculture and health sector. The knowledge acquired during the previous project in the regions of Cusco and Piura is being shared with the neighbouring regions of Puno and Lambayeque.

In a second step, the Peruvian experience is being transferred to Colombia and Brazil. Agreements have been concluded with the project partners and the national planning ministries, and technical teams have been set up. By 2019, at least one exemplary public investment project that takes climate risks into consideration and develops adaptation measures will be implemented in both countries. These pilot projects and recommendations from discussions and knowledge exchange among the three countries form the basis for the systematic integration of climate risk management in public investment projects in Colombia and Brazil.

An online learning platform systematizes the lessons learned, didactically processes them and supports the sustainability and multiplication of the progress made in the project throughout Latin America.

Results

In Peru, the new multi-year programming and investment management scheme INVIERTE.PE came into force in February 2017. The new minimum requirements applicable to all public investment projects include climate risk management. In Colombia investment projects are required to carry out a disaster risk analysis since November 2017.

In northern Peru, research was conducted with a local university following the extreme weather event El Niño in order to identify the key characteristics of infrastructure that had remained intact. These best practices serve as models for regional and local governments on how bridges, roads and other public investments can be made climate resilient. The researchers involved in the study were able to experience climate risk management in practice and can now integrate what they learned into their work.

In an exchange programme representatives of the three countries visited each other's partner institutions with a view to learning from each other and stepping up their discussion on positive experiences and remaining challenges. The participants are now being assisted with the process of integrating the insights into their own work.