POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

The National Maritime Foundation (NMF) and the India Office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) jointly organised the half-day symposium entitled "CLIMATE-CHANGE-INDUCED THREATS TO CRITICAL MARITIME INFRASTRUCTURE: NATIONAL AND REGIONAL PERSPECTIVES" on Tuesday 04 October 2022.  The event was conducted in physical format with virtual participation from international speakers.

The symposium successfully brought together international experts to share their unique perspectives and experiences on the growing risks posed by the impacts of climate change to maritime infrastructure and deliberate upon commensurate adaptation strategies that are being or should be adopted to minimise these risks.  The two professional sessions delved into the themes “Quantifying Current and Projected Climate Change Impacts on Critical Maritime Infrastructure” and “Building Climate Resilience into National and Regional Maritime Infrastructure”.  The inter-related key policy recommendations that emerged from the symposium, are mentioned below: 

1. A growing number of peer-reviewed scientific studies have shown that climate change is making extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, floods, and tropical cyclones, more frequent, more intense, and less predictable.  To better prepare for the storms of the future, there is a need to enhance the national and regional scientific and technological capacity to improve weather forecasting models and long-term climate models to better predict the evolution of individual extreme events and the overall changes in their trends due to climate change, respectively.

2. There is an urgent need to undertake comprehensive local- and national-level climate change risk assessment studies that not only take into account current observed trends in climate-change-induced hazards but also projected changes for 2030/ 2050/ 2100.  The risk assessments must also need address systemic issues such as rapid urbanisation, population growth, expansion of informal settlements, etc., that exacerbate climate risks, as also the growing likelihood of multiple disasters occurring at the same time or in a cascading manner.

3. Climate change induced sea-level rise poses a monumental and irreversible threat to critical maritime infrastructure.  In order to inform policy decisions at the national level and development plans at the local level, we need to produce downscaled sea-level rise projections for 2030/ 2050/ 2100 at the district-, state-, and national-levels.  

4. In response to sea level rise and high storm surges, a number of adaptation options could be considered on a case-to-case basis, such as protecting the coast using sea dykes, seawalls, barriers, etc., increasing the elevation of coastal infrastructure wherever possible, advancing seaward by land-fill, using sand or other material or by planting vegetation, and, retreating and relocating from areas that cannot be protected. 

5. We must also explore Nature Based Solutions (NBS) for creating climate and disaster resilient infrastructure.  NBS are being increasingly recognised as cost-effective solutions that provide additional socio-economic benefits through ecosystems services. 

6. In addition to hard-infrastructure based measures, we must also incorporate ‘soft measures’ such as changes in policies, standard operating procedures, emergency preparedness protocols, working protocols, training exercises, building codes, etc. 

7. In building coastal climate resilience, it would be critical to involve local communities in the planning, formulation, and implementation stages of the adaptation plans.  It is essential to empower local communities through training programs on disaster preparedness, response and recovery, and climate change adaptation and mitigation.  There is also a need to promote and facilitate community-led technological and social innovations to solve local-level challenges arising from climate change.

8. We must recognise that most types of maritime infrastructure are built to last several decades, 50 years on average.  The impacts of climate change are accelerating and significant uncertainty remains in the pace and magnitude of future climate change.  Therefore, the adaptation strategies must also be dynamic.  This requires a completely new approach that is more amenable to modifications and upgrades on five- to ten-year timescales.

9. Finally, we must utilise existing regional and sub-regional frameworks such as the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, the QUAD security dialogue, the Indian Ocean Rim Association, the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium, the Indian Ocean Commission, BIMSTEC and ASEAN, to promote sharing of best practices and technologies and prioritise climate change adaptation as a critical action point.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Coastal areas around the world are amongst the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, because in addition to the impacts such as heatwaves, droughts, and extreme rainfall events, all of which are common to hinterland regions as well, coastal regions are increasingly experiencing sea-based threats such as far-more frequent and intense cyclonic storms and the long-term challenge of sea-level rise.  Together, these impacts pose direct and quite significant challenges for critical maritime infrastructure which was the main subject for this symposium.

• Nations have varying ideas for what constitutes ‘critical infrastructure’.  In fact, most nations have not formally defined their ‘critical infrastructure’.  In India, the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) defined ‘critical sectors/ infrastructure’ as those “that are critical to the nation and whose incapacity or destruction will have a debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or safety”.  While the NCIIPC is principally focussed on ‘information’ infrastructure, the proposed definition could be extrapolated to physical infrastructure as well.

• Considering the growing energy demands, India has a massive network of oil and gas exploration and extraction infrastructure, as also oil refineries for finished products.  Out of 34 million metric tonnes (MMT) of oil and 33 billion cubic metres (CBM) of gas that are extracted within the country annually, 50 per cent of oil and nearly 67 per cent of gas comes from offshore facilities.  The protection of offshore energy infrastructure, therefore, is a critical component of national security.

• The maritime trade sector forms the backbone of the global economy.  Over 80 per cent, by volume, of all international merchandise trade is carried upon the sea.  For India, this number is around 95 per cent.  India has 12 major ports and over 200 non-major ports, situated along the 7516 km long coastline, that facilitate this trade and are, therefore, critical for the Indian economy.

• Insofar as national security is concerned it is important to remember that a vast majority of the Indian Navy’s and the Indian Coast Guard’s bases, headquarters, hospitals, and training facilities are located in high-climate-risk regions along the coastlines of Mumbai, Goa, Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, as also in islands of the Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar chains.  Any damage incurred by critical infrastructure or support facilities such as power and communication lines, will hamper the operational readiness of the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard.

• In the context of climate change risks to critical maritime infrastructure in sectors such as transport, power & energy, telecommunication, government, etc., the academic literature is quite scant.  Most of the literature has originated in the last decade or so, that too primarily in developed countries.

• Recent records have shown that the frequency of high-intensity cyclonic storms has increased markedly in both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal in recent decades.  This increase has been primarily driven by the increase in sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean due to global warming caused by increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.  Studies also indicate that this trend is expected to continue in the future without significant mitigating actions to reduce the pace of global warming.

• While the east coast of India is rather familiar to powerful cyclones which have now become a nearly annual occurrence, the west coast has not witnessed high-intensity cyclones historically.  Consequently, the country’s maritime infrastructure along the west coast is particularly underprepared and therefore more vulnerable to these extreme weather events.  This became evident in 2021 when cyclone Tauktae hit the west coast as an Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm (ESCS) and caused significant damages estimated at over Rs 15,000 crore to the states of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

• In addition to the possibility of causing physical damage to infrastructure, cyclonic storms result in economic losses by simply causing operational shutdowns.  Considering seaports as an example, standard operating procedures dictate that during any cyclonic storm a port is to halt all operations, all vessels inside the port are asked to move outside to the anchorage area, all cargo-handling equipment is to be anchored and secured, and other facilities are to be secured appropriately.  This shutdown period could last for a few hours to a few days depending on the intensity and duration of the cyclone.  If any significant structural damage is incurred, the recovery period could be even longer, stretching up to weeks.

• In order to better prepare for the storms of the future, there is a need to enhance the national and regional scientific and technological capacity to improve weather forecasting models and long-term climate models to better predict the evolution of individual cyclones and the overall changes in their trends due to climate change, respectively.

• There is an urgent need to undertake comprehensive local- and national-level climate change risk assessment studies that not only take into account current observed trends in climate-change-induced hazards but also projected changes for 2030/ 2050/ 2100.  This is highly relevant in the maritime sectors such as ports and shipping, fisheries, and energy, since the existing development plans in these sectors do not address the growing risks from climate change.  The risk assessments must also need address systemic issues such as rapid urbanisation, population growth, expansion of informal settlements, etc., that exacerbate climate risks, as also the growing likelihood of multiple disasters occurring at the same time or in a cascading manner.

• The Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal in particular, is experiencing one of the fastest rates of sea level rise than anywhere else in the world.  Sea level rise poses a monumental, irreversible and long-term threat to critical maritime infrastructure in coastal and island nations of the Indo-Pacific. 

• The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report, entitled “Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis”, released by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2021, projected that the global mean sea level (GMSL) rise could be in the range of 0.63-1.01 m by 2100, relative to 1995-2014 levels if no mitigation action is taken.  The report also acknowledged that there are significant uncertainties in model-based projections for sea level rise due to the complex nature of the land-based ice-sheet dynamics.  In the “low-likelihood worst-case scenario” GMSL could rise by as much as 2 m by 2100, which would be utterly catastrophic for all coastal and island nations.

• In order to better inform actions at the local level and policy at the national level, the global projections for sea level rise must be downscaled to produce more detailed projections at the district- or state-level.  This is a challenging scientific problem and one that needs to be supported through financing for research and development.

• In response to sea level rise and high storm surges, a number of adaptation options could be considered such as protecting the coast using sea dykes, seawalls, barriers, etc., increasing the elevation of coastal infrastructure wherever possible, advancing seaward by land-fill, using sand or other material or by planting vegetation, and, retreating and relocating from areas that cannot be protected.  The feasibility and practicality of a particular approach would depend on the geographical limitations of the particular region and the associated economic, technological, and human costs.

• We must simultaneously explore Nature Based Solutions (NBS) for creating climate and disaster resilient infrastructure.  NBS are being increasingly recognised as cost-effective solutions that provide additional socio-economic benefits through ecosystems services.  Some of examples include better forest and soil management to reduce the risks from flooding due to extreme precipitation, increasing ‘green spaces’ in urban areas to reduce extreme heat stress and flooding risks, naturalisation of river banks to provide floodplain storage and regulate water flow, restoration and plantation of coastal wetlands such as mangroves and salt marshes to mitigate the impact of storm surges and prevent coastal erosion.

• In addition to hard-infrastructure based measures, we must also incorporate ‘soft measures’ such as changes in policies, standard operating procedures, emergency preparedness protocols, working protocols, training exercises, building codes, etc. 

• In building coastal climate resilience, it would be critical to involve local communities in the planning, formulation, and implementation stages of the adaptation plans.  It is essential to empower local communities through training programs on disaster preparedness, response and recovery, and climate change adaptation and mitigation.  There is also a need to promote and facilitate community-led technological and social innovations to solve local-level challenges arising from climate change.

• Finally, perhaps the most important and yet frequently ignored aspect that must be addressed in climate change adaptation planning pertains to the dynamic nature of climate change.  Most types of maritime infrastructure are built to last several decades, 50 years on average.  The impacts of climate change are accelerating and significant uncertainty remains in the pace and magnitude of future climate change.  Therefore, the adaptation strategies must also be dynamic.  This requires a completely new approach that is more amenable to modifications and upgrades on five- to ten-year timescales.

EVENT REPORT

INTRODUCTION

1.       Recognising the urgency and seriousness of the risks posed by climate change to national and regional security in the Indo-Pacific, the National Maritime Foundation and the India Office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung have embarked on a long-term one-of-its-kind concerted project in which Indian and international experts, academics, policymakers, and other stakeholders, would be brought together to address the national and regional implications of climate change with regard to the different elements of human security, economic security, and hard security, in the form of research papers, policy briefs, discussion forums, and symposia.  The inaugural symposium under this project focussed on the theme “Addressing Climate-Change-Induced Security Threats to Critical Maritime Infrastructure: National and Regional Perspectives”.  This was the first in a series of symposia that will sequentially delve deeper into various sub-themes under the broader ambit of climate security, specifically in the maritime domain. 

2.       The symposium successfully brought together international experts to share their unique perspectives and experiences on the growing risks posed by the impacts of climate change to maritime infrastructure and deliberate upon commensurate adaptation strategies that are being or should be adopted to minimise these risks.  The two professional sessions delved into the themes “Quantifying Current and Projected Climate Change Impacts on Critical Maritime Infrastructure” and “Building Climate Resilience into National and Regional Maritime Infrastructure”. 

WELCOME REMARKS

3. Vice Admiral Pradeep Chauhan, AVSM & Bar, VSM, IN (Retd) Director-General, National Maritime Foundation welcomed all the panellists and participants to the symposium.  He set the context for the symposium by outlining the purpose of the symposium, the nature of the collaboration with Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), the way forward and the need to sensitise and work together with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of India.  He reminded the audience that, in India, there is abundant literature on critical ‘information’ infrastructure and the infirmities related to the IT sector.  When it comes to critical ‘physical’ infrastructure, the literature is practically negligible.  Within critical infrastructure, maritime infrastructure forms a major subset which is essential for the Indian economy, as also for maintaining strong relations with our maritime neighbours and ensuring security and prosperity in the broader Indo-Pacific region.  He highlighted that India recognises the threats to critical maritime infrastructure from acts of terrorism and has indeed taken steps to address those threats, particularly since the 2008 attacks on Mumbai.  However, he lamented the fact that we are not doing enough as a nation, as a region, and as a global community to assess and mitigate the threats posed by the growing impacts of climate change, which was the primary motivation for this symposium.  He congratulated KAS for their commendable efforts in recent decades to facilitates important dialogues in India and enhance international cooperation within the region.  He acknowledged the long-standing, highly productive institutional partnership between the NMF and India Office of KAS.  Finally, he urged the participants and the audience to avoid the tendency to converse in generalities and address the specifics.  He highlighted the need to provide targeted solutions and policy recommendations to the government authorities to address the risks from climate change to critical maritime infrastructure.  In this context, he urged the NDMA to not only focus upon the Indian mainland and the island territories but also on the challenges in the broader region and countries in India’s maritime neighbourhood and exchange best practices.

4. Mr Pankaj Madan, Deputy-Head India Office, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, at the outset, acknowledged the strong professional ties between KAS and the NMF and thanked the team that put together the symposium.  He highlighted the fact that rising sea-levels and extreme weather events that are increasing in frequency and severity, due to climate change, are hurting the booming urbanisation and leading to loss of lives and livelihoods in the coastal regions of India.  Quoting Rabindranath Tagore, Mr Madan urged the audience to be fearless in the face of new and more severe dangers arising due to accelerating climate change.  In the context of the symposium, he pointed out the criticality of maritime infrastructure for the survival of the coastal populace and to ensure the effective functioning of the supply chains.  He highlighted that the Indian coastline is particularly vulnerable to climate change due to frequent flooding, cyclonic storms, and land erosion due to sea level rise.  The high population density in coastal regions also adds to their vulnerability.  He pointed out the need for strengthening the early warning systems, evacuation procedures, and HADR capabilities, that have indeed in recent years saved many lives during disasters.  He reminded the audience that Germany and India have both adopted the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, which aims to enhance international cooperation and reduce the harmful effects of climate change.  He also pointed out that Germany is one of the member countries of the Coalition for Disaster Resilience Infrastructure (CDRI) that was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019.  Finally, he highlighted the topics that will be covered during the symposium and acknowledged the esteemed speakers that will be sharing their perspectives and insights.

5. Mr Krishna S Vatsa, Member, National Disaster Management Authority, India, in his keynote address, outlined the key contemporary issues arising from climate change and the steps that are being taken to address those issues.  He pointed out that while scientific measurements have shown that both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal are warming, we need more research to establish with certainty the extent of warming and make future projections.  Similarly with sea level rise, it is well-established that there are three main contributing factors, (1) thermal expansion of the ocean water, (2) melting of continental ice sheets and mountain glaciers, and (3) land subsidence due to anthropogenic activities, however, we need more research to establish with certainty the current trends and future projections.  In the context of extreme weather events, he pointed out that the frequency of cyclones affecting India’s coastline is increasing.  This is particularly worrisome for the West Coast of India since the region have not witnessed many cyclones historically.  The Government of India, including the NDMA, has taken several steps in recent years which have been successful in reducing the number of casualties from cyclones, however, in light of the changing risk profiles he emphasised the need to be prepared for such extreme events.  In the context of adverse impacts on maritime infrastructure, he shared the examples of Mumbai port and Visakhapatnam port that incurred significant losses due to cyclone Tauktae and cyclone Hudhud, respectively.  He highlighted the threats posed by land erosion to coastal communities and shared the initiatives that are being implemented by the NDMA to address coastal erosion.  He emphasised on taking a multi-faceted approach towards risk mitigation, in addition to hard infrastructure, he emphasised the need to incorporate nature-based solutions and work together with local communities.  He highlighted the efforts being made together with the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) in making the energy infrastructure more resilient in the coastal regions.  He spoke about the need for more comprehensive and detailed risk assessment studies to inform commensurate adaptation strategies.  In this context, he indicated the potential for collaboration and cooperation between the NMF and the NDMA, as also with other organisations across the country, to conduct such studies in the future.

PROFESSIONAL SESSION I:  QUANTIFYING CURRENT AND PROJECTED CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON CRITICAL MARITIME INFRASTRUCTURE

6.  Vice Admiral Pradeep Chauhan, AVSM & Bar, VSM, IN (Retd) Director-General, National Maritime Foundation, moderated the opening session.  In his opening remarks as the moderator, he emphasised the need to define ‘critical physical infrastructure’ at the national and regional levels.  Naturally, at the national level, the definitions may vary to some extent as different types of infrastructure may be ‘critical’ to different countries.  He also highlighted the challenges that would arise in the implementation of an adaptation strategy due to involvement of a large number of stakeholders in the maritime domain, pointing out that there are at least 15 ministries, 20 agencies, and several private companies working in the maritime domain in India.  He reminded the audience of the national and regional security concerns that would arise as a result of the impacts of climate change, providing the example of sea level rise along the coast of Bangladesh is expected to displace thousands of people, the movement of the displacement population to the urban areas in the hinterland will add pressure to the already strained urban infrastructure.  He pointed out the need to conduct more comprehensive and robust risk assessment studies to guide our strategies.  Finally, he emphasised that proceedings of the symposium must inform and guide the policymakers in the government of India and our neighbours in the region. 

7. Commodore Sudhir Singh, Officer In-Charge, Offshore Defence Advisory Group (ODAG) Cell, New Delhi, presented his perspective on climate-change induced threats to India’s offshore infrastructure.  Considering the evolving energy scenario and plans for installation of new offshore energy infrastructure (tidal, offshore wind, etc.), he urged that the impact of climate change on the energy infrastructure in India warrants a much more serious study than ever-before.  He reminded the audience that India is still largely dependent on fossil-fuels for energy, with 50 per cent, 36 per cent, and 9 per cent of the total energy consumption being derived from coal, petroleum, and gas, respectively.  He also pointed out that 50 per cent of oil and 67 per cent of gas that is extracted in the country annually, comes from offshore assets.  Citing recent literature, he highlighted the impacts of extreme temperature events on oil and gas extraction infrastructure, particularly in higher latitude regions.  He spoke of the impacts on extreme precipitation and flooding events oil refineries and processing facilities and operations.  He identified cyclonic storms with high wind speeds as the most dangerous threat to coastal and offshore energy infrastructure not only through direct structural damage but also by disrupting critical support facilities such as power and communication.  He provided the example of Hurricane Katrina in 2017 in the USA, which destroyed 113 platforms, severely damaged 19 oil drilling rigs, and caused 19 mobile offshore drilling units to be adrift.  In the context of sea level rise, he emphasised that the long-term nature of the threat must be taken into account since most maritime infrastructure has a lifetime of multiple decades.  Finally, he provided recommendations for the way forward and highlighted the need for increasing internal capability, enhancing the knowledge base of management personnel, design engineers, and contractors, increasing capital investments, risk-evaluation studies, etc.  He emphasised the need for a holistic resilience strategy which includes (1) anticipatory capacity, (2) absorptive capacity, (3) coping capacity, (4) restorative capacity, and (5) adaptive capacity.

8. Cdr Pawanjit Singh, Cdr-DNOM-Directorate of Naval Oceanography and Meteorology (DNOM), Indian Navy, at the outset, provided an overview of the current trends in the impacts of climate change and their future projections under different greenhouse gas emissions scenario.  He highlighted the emerging security risks due to climate change such as food and water scarcity, loss of biodiversity, increasing health risks, increasing poverty, and internal and external migration of people.  He provided an analysis of critical timelines for climate-change-induced security impacts in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR); he indicated that about 2.5 million people along the Myanmar coastline are expected to be affected sea level rise by 2050; the southern Nicobar islands are likely to be submerged by 2040-2050; by 2050, with a predicted 50 cm rise in sea level, Bangladesh may lose 11 per cent of its land; between 2060 and 2080, Seychelles may lose 70 per cent of its landmass; Maldives may lose 77 per cent its landmass by the year 2100.  He emphasised that the inundation of coastal and island territories, changes in coastlines leading to changes in baselines, opening of alternative shipping routes, and more frequent hydrometeorological disasters, will have significant impacts on the Indian Navy’s operations by affecting the naval infrastructure and strategic positions.  He also highlighted the maritime security and legal issues that would arise due to migration of ‘climate refugees’ to India.  In his concluding remarks, he provided a few mitigating and adaptive measures that should be taken such as creation of protective infrastructure, conservation and protection of coastal and marine ecosystems, protective and preventive measures for naval installations, land reclamation or creation of artificial islands with higher elevation, climate-change-focussed multilateral initiatives, etc. 

9. Dr Pushp Bajaj, Research Fellow and Head of Blue Economy and Climate Change Cluster, National Maritime Foundation, shared his views on climate change threats to India’s seaport infrastructure and operations.  He reminded the audience of the criticality of maritime trade, in 2021, merchandise trade accounted for nearly one-third India’s total GDP and nearly 95 per cent of that trade travelled through the sea, facilitated by India’s 12 major ports and over 200 non-major ports.  He highlighted that ports are among the most vulnerable of the critical maritime infrastructure simply due to their geographical location on the coast and the exposure to sea level rise and cyclonic storms.  He pointed out that India’s ambitious plan for development of the maritime sector, the Maritime India Vision 2030, which focusses on creating world-class greenfield ports, modernising existing ports, port-led industrialisation, and public-private partnerships, does not lay specific emphasis on protecting the infrastructure against the impacts of climate change.  He presented the findings of the National Maritime Foundation’s latest study on “Assessing Climate Change Induced Risks-to and Resilience-of India’s Port Infrastructure and Operations”, supported by the 2021-22 Fellowship of the CDRI, including climate-risk profiles of Mumbai Port and Paradip Port that were generated in consultation with the respective port authorities.  The risk profiles indicated that cyclones and heavy precipitation events pose the most significant threats ports, followed by sea level rise and extreme temperature, as perceived by the port authorities.  In his concluding remarks, he highlighted the need for more in-depth, quantitative risk-assessment studies of all major and non-major ports in a phased and systematic manner, and the scope to extend the study into the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and promote greater cooperation on climate change adaptation and disaster resilience.

10. Prof Md Mustafa Saroar, Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh, presented his views on climate change threats to coastal urban infrastructure in Bangladesh.  He pointed out that while no country or region in the world is immune to the impacts of climate change, low-lying deltas and island countries in the Indo-Pacific are particularly vulnerable hotspots.  Setting the geographical context for Bangladesh, he mentioned that Bangladesh shares more than 100 rivers with India, most of which originate from the Himalayan region and all of which ultimate drain into the Bay of Bengal.  He also highlighted that the Bay of Bengal is a breeding ground of cyclones, and the region is also experiencing one of the fastest rates of sea level rise.  A 1-metre rise in sea level could inundate areas home to 24 million people and a projected 15 per cent increase in precipitation would affect 71 million people; the numbers could be even higher due to the fast-growing population in Bangladesh.  He pointed out that, according to recent studies, the coastal districts of Patuakhali, Barguna, Bagerhat, Khulna, and Satkhira are the most vulnerable to saltwater intrusion, coastal inundation, cyclones, and storm surges.  He outlined the critical urban infrastructure that are exposed to climate-change-induced events including transportation infrastructure, housing infrastructure, trade, commerce, and industry, parks and recreational infrastructure, power and energy infrastructure, health and educational infrastructure, etc.  He then presented a case study of the Khulna Metropolitan City which experienced remarkable growth and development in recent decades and is expected to continue to grow in the future.  He highlighted the climatic and non-climatic factors that will seriously impede the city’s growth and safety, particularly for more vulnerable low-income settlements.  Finally, he highlighted the measures (both hard and soft measures) being taken in Bangladesh at the national and local levels to minimise exposure to climate hazards, reduce the vulnerability, and increase adaptive capacity.

PROFESSIONAL SESSION II:  BUILDING CLIMATE RESILIENCE INTO NATIONAL AND REGIONAL MARITIME INFRASTRUCTURE

11. Dr Ranit Chatterjee, Co-founder, Resilience Innovation and Knowledge Academy (RIKA), India and Visiting Associate Professor, Keio University, Japan, moderated the second professional session.  He stressed on the criticality of maritime trade and its high vulnerability to climate change, particularly in South Asia and South-east Asia.  He emphasised the need to address the vulnerability of soft assets, such as human resource, policy, economic growth, etc., in addition to the hard assets, such as, ports, oil pipelines, subsea structures, etc.  He outlined the characteristics of ‘risks’ in the context of climate change, including systemic risk, new and emerging risks, transboundary risk, and cascading and compounding risk.  In describing the concept of ‘infrastructure resilience’, he reminded the audience of the commonly used ‘4R’ system wherein Resilience is defined through four main characteristics of a system- Redundancy, Resourcefulness, Rapidity, and Robustness.  He suggested the need to add an extra ‘R’ to the definition, corresponding to ‘Reflexivity’ which he described as the system’s ability to be dynamic and flexible in the face of new challenges.  Finally, he highlighted the need to enhance the resilience of ‘social infrastructure’ including social capital, governance structures, policy, cultural diversity, knowledge capacity, etc.

12.  Ms Regina Asariotis, Chief, Policy and Legislation Section, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, was the first speaker in the session and delivered a presentation on global best practices in enhancing climate resilience of seaports.  At the outset, she contextualised the problem by sharing estimates of projected global economic losses due to climate change induced hazards if adaptation measures are taken.  She then highlighted the importance of seaports to the global economy and the direct and indirect threats posed by climate change to seaports.  Utilising the IPCC’s definition of ‘climate risk’, she broke down the risk to ports into ‘hazards’, ‘exposure’, and ‘vulnerability’.  She presented the projections for extreme sea level events and extreme heats for global ports under different future warming scenarios.  She highlighted that exposure and vulnerability are heavily site-dependent and therefore require field studies; she shared the results from a recent study of the UNCTAD of the ports in Jamaica and Saint Lucia which showed that all critical transport infrastructure assets are at high risk from climate change by even as early as 2030.  She lamented the fact that we are not prepared for the risks emerging from climate change as is evident from recent survey-based studies.  She emphasised the need to accelerate adaptation planning and climate action- conduct high-quality vulnerability and risk assessment studies, increase capacity building and better access to affordable climate finance, utilise ecosystem-based adaptation approaches, avoid maladaptation/ ‘over-engineering’, and strengthen legal and policy frameworks.  As an example, she highlighted the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change which incorporates important legal and policy changes and provides guidelines for climate proofing of critical infrastructure.  

13. Mr Shubham Tandon, Project Officer-Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation, United Nations Development Programme, spoke about enhancing climate resilience of Indian coastal cities.  At the outset, he highlighted how rapid urbanisation, movement of rural population to urban centres, poor management of resources, and the impacts of climate change, together pose major challenges to India’s coastal cities.  He pointed out that in urban centres, in particular, systemic and cascading risks become highly relevant; high population density and poor infrastructure services could exacerbate losses from natural disasters.  He emphasised the need to revise the city-level disaster management and climate change action plans which are now outdated, as also the city building bylaws, regulations, and standards to account for the current and projected impacts of climate change.  He highlighted the need to conduct climate risk assessments of coastal regions that account for compound, cascading, and systemic risks and at the ‘micro-level’ to support local development planning and processes.  He stressed on the importance early-warning systems, community-based resilience measures, protection and conservation of coastal ecosystems, and utilising nature based solutions for urban resilience. Finally, he shared a video from an ongoing project of the UNDP entitled “Enhancing Climate Resilience of India’s Coastal Communities”.

14. Dr Chime Youdon, Associate Fellow, NMF, delivered a presentation on mainstreaming nature-based solutions for creating climate and disaster resilient infrastructure.  She reminded the audience that infrastructure forms the backbone of the global economy, connecting people, enhancing quality of life, and promoting health and safety.  She then pointed out the impacts of climate change on coastal infrastructure; In 2005, 136 largest coastal cities globally suffered losses worth USD 6 billion; by 2050, these losses are expected to rise to at least USD 52 billion per year.  She then provided examples of ‘hard-infrastructure’ solutions, such as dikes, seawalls, etc., that are being explored around the world to protect coastal regions, however, she pointed that such measures prohibitively expensive, especially in the developing parts of the world.  In this context, nature-based solutions provide cost-effective solutions that also provide socio-economic co-benefits.  She highlighted there is no standard definition of ‘nature-based solutions’, the International Union for Conservation of Nature provides a holistic definition which states, “actions to protect, sustainably manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits”.  Through case studies and examples, she highlighted how nature-based solutions can be utilised to minimise disaster and climate risks, for instance in landslide prone areas, restoring forests could stabilise soils and slow water runoff, better forest management can also reduce risk of wildfires.  In urban centres, well designed green spaces can reduce heat and flood risks.  Restoration and protection of coastal wetlands can protect the coastline against storm surges and sea level rise.  She highlighted the potential-of and shared examples of current initiatives in nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation in India and neighbouring countries in South Asia and South-east Asia.  Finally, she emphasised the need for integrating nature-based solutions in nationally determined contributions (NDCs), the need to increase capital investment, to work together with local communities, and to scale up monitoring and evaluation systems for nature-based solutions 

15.  Mr Mohammad Mahmodul Hasan, Coordinator, Climate Change Program, Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB), was the final speaker for the session and the symposium.  He explored the role of people-led initiatives in enhancing climate resilience of coastal communities.  At the outset, he explained points of vulnerability of Bangladesh to climate change, he highlighted that over the last 13 years Bangladesh has seen 12 major cyclones, in an average year 18 per cent of the landmass is inundated by flooding, and the soil salinity has increased by 26 per cent over the last three decades.  Giving a brief background of the CCDB, he explained his role in the Climate Change Division of the CCDB and how they are working to enhance resilience through community-based/led initiatives.  The CCDB established the Community Climate Resilience Centre (CCRC) which focusses upon early warning systems, fund raising, information sharing, and market linkages, among other things.  In this context, he highlighted the importance of training and capacity building programmes for disaster management, climate change adaptation, gender equity, etc.  He shared their work on building climate-resilient agriculture through people-led solutions that utilise climate-adaptive technologies, rainwater harvesting, desalination plants, crop-rotation methods, seed storage facilities, etc.  He also highlighted the need to generate alternative livelihoods through skill development for the vulnerable communities that may be conventionally solely reliant on fishing or farming.  Finally, he emphasised the critical role of the youth in climate change action, he highlighted the CCDB’s work in collaboration with schools in involving the youth through training programmes, and generating volunteering opportunities.