Mobilizing Finance for Adaptation with Resilient Infrastructure

Purpose: Climate change is increasing multi-hazard risks to infrastructure. Yet only around one-third of climate finance reaches adaptation, wherein 90% of adaptation costs lie in infrastructure. CDRI research shows that a 5–15% upfront investment in resilient infrastructure can deliver 7–12x returns over its lifetime by protecting essential services, productivity and public finances. However, the lack of standardized, project-level approaches to quantify resilience benefits continues to limit investment. CDRI’s Resilience Cost-Benefit Analysis (RCBA) tool addresses this gap by enabling stakeholders to quantify & compare resilience benefits and build a credible, investable business case for investors. The session will explore how Resilience Cost-Benefit Analysis (RCBA) can help bridge the gap between climate adaptation needs and investment decisions by quantifying the economic benefits of resilient infrastructure. It will highlight the “resilience dividend”—the long-term economic, social and fiscal returns from investing in infrastructure resilience—and demonstrate how evidence-based assessment of these benefits can strengthen the business case for adaptation finance.

Theme: The session directly supports the “Financing Implementation” theme by focusing on how resilience can be translated from an adaptation priority into bankable, investment-ready infrastructure projects. By using RCBA to quantify the economic value and resilience dividend of infrastructure investments, the session addresses a key implementation barrier: the difficulty of demonstrating returns and benefits to financiers. It will explore how better project-level evidence, risk-informed investment decisions, and innovative financing partnerships can mobilize and direct capital towards implementation of resilient infrastructure.

Key messages:

1. Upfront investment in resilient infrastructure can generate significant long-term economic and social returns.
2. Quantifying avoided losses and wider benefits can strengthen the case for adaptation investment.
3. Climate and disaster risks should be systematically incorporated into infrastructure appraisal and financing.
4. Project-level tools such as RCBA can translate resilience benefits into credible, decision-ready investment cases.
5. Innovative financing mechanisms and partnerships are needed to scale investment in resilient infrastructure.