Investing in Green Growth under Uncertainty

Project Summary:

This project aimed to integrate World Bank recommendations for resilient infrastructure planning into specific on-the-ground water, hydropower, and transportation projects. The team evaluated relevant economic and scientific data related to climate change uncertainties, develop key performance metrics for resilience monitoring and evaluation, and built awareness and capacity among World Bank staff and in-country partners using the Bank’s established Decision Tree Frameworks for climate-resilient infrastructure projects. More specifically, KGGTF funding supported at least six World Bank lending water projects around the world and the facilitation of several Decision Tree Frameworks trainings, both in Korea and the U.S. Related to hydropower, grant funding went toward a rapid sediment assessment for Vietnam’s primary electricity provider that will include both mitigation and adaptation suggestions. More broadly, the grant also funded green growth guidelines for general run-of-river and reservoir storage projects. In the transportation sector, KGGTF funding helped 10 World Bank lending projects use Decision Tree Frameworks, including ongoing efforts in Mozambique, at Lake Victoria, and in India. KGGTF support also helped complete design and construction standards that illustrate climate-resilient approaches for a variety of transportation scenarios. Overall, the dissemination and integration of this foundational World Bank framework helped standardize and manifest more robust and resilient infrastructure investments worldwide.

List of Activities:

• Water: support to operations. 6 Decision Tree Framework (at least 2 WB project per year on the average)
• Water: 4 one-day training to World Bank staff (in DC and in interested country offices)
• Water: 7 3-day trainings of clients’ staff in different regions, based on demand from interested clients (Malawi or Seoul could be the first one)
• Water: 3 one week training at UMass university, with students and professors from client countries, other interested potential contractors (universities, firms).
• Hydropower: Project support for improving resilience in the hydropower & dams sector in different regions
• Hydropower: Development of guidelines on resilience in the hydropower & dams sector
• Transport: support to operations
• Transport: new standards for resilience
   

Outcomes:

Output 1: Water 

1-1. More robust  and resilient projects designed

Output 2: Hydropower

2-1. Guidelines produced and disseminated

2-2. More resilient dam’s design built
2-3. More robust investment plans. Reports

Output 3: Transport

3-1. Guidelines produced and disseminated
3-2. An overarching piece that joins all different approaches and proposes a pathway for their more detailed implementation within sectors
Better trained TTLs 

Output 4: All sectors

4-1. Better trained TTLs 
4-2. Government experts/decision makers trained in DT/DMU analytics for resilient water infrastructure planning
4-3. Enlarged pool of academics/consultants familiar with DT/DMU principles and the Decision Tree Framework
4-4. Analysis of operations’ supported for mainstreaming DMU
4-5. Analysis of sessions and participants satisfaction and summarize projects applying the Decision Tree Framework
4-6. Increased access to key DMU tools and expertise to efficient planning
4-7. Sessions in countries
4-8. Case studies and training material

Outcomes:

The team created a community of trained leaders and practitioners in East Asia, South Asia, Africa, and Latin America, in the World Bank, in government agencies, in utilities and in private companies, who adopted these new approaches and will be fully equipped to deal with uncertainties in long-term investment planning. The team supported at least $3b in WBG lending projects in the water, transport and hydro sectors, promoting green growth by ensuring that those projects are robust to future unexpected events and environmentally-sound. The team  developed specific guidelines for the design of hydropower projects and developed new standards for publicly financed transport infrastructure. The team also created a network of governments, university and private firms that will keep learning about the best practices for long-term green growth planning and that were shared.

Collaboration with K-Partners and Others:

WBG internal partners:

This grant supported part of the work of the Programmatic Approach recently initiated by the SD Practice Group jointly with the Climate CCSA, for “Enhancing climate and disaster resilience of World Bank Sustainable Development operations” (P158601). The Programmatic Approach was initiated in response to the increasing demand for measuring how WBG operations at the project-level strengthen climate and disaster resilience.  It includes representatives from all SD sectors and the CC CCSA (including GFDRR).

Other internal partners for the hydropower work are SAWI and ESMAP.

-           K-Partners:

K-Water. Cooperation with K-water’s increasing investment and research in water supply, integrated water management, adaptation strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change, efficient management of water disasters will be beneficial.

KICT. Has expertise on flood risk and water resources management and is interested in a collaboration with the Water sector.

KOTI. The WB transport practice and chief economist for SD with collaborate with KOTI on a better accounting of climate change impacts and deep uncertainties in transport projects.

KDI (PIMAC). The WB team is starting a collaboration with PIMAC on improving WBG guidelines for the pre-appraisal of infrastructure projects. The aim is to integrate multi-criteria analyses (like PIMAC is doing now) with decision-making under uncertainty techniques to increase the long-term robustness of SD projects.