Climate resilience features strongly in ADB urban projects in 2019
June 2020
In the 2019 Annual Report of the Urban Financing Partership Facility (UFPF), managed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), climate resilience has become more embedded in urban development investments.
The report showed that there was a total of $191.86 million in UFPF, with its largest share coming from the Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund (UCCRTF) at 78% of the total.
By the end of 2019, UFPF assistance has led to a total of 152 completed projects, comprised of investment grants, technical assistance, direct charge activities, and project preparation studies. The report details the performance of each trust fund: UCCRTF, the Urban Environmental Infrastructure Fund (UEIF), the Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) Trust Fund, and the ASEAN Australia Smart Cities Trust Fund (AASCTF).
According to the report, UCCRTF approved 12 projects amounting to $18.725 million, which brings the total portfolio to $118.502 million. Out of this, $58.4 million has been linked to $2.065 billion of approved investments, of which $358.3 million is from sources other than the ADB. This total downstream financing is expected to exceed $3 billion if all pending loans supported by UCCRTF activities are approved.
AUTHOR
UCCRTF Secretariat
UCCRTF project case studies
The UFPF Annual Report included several impact stories from UCCRTF projects. These included the Spatial Data Analysis Explorer (SPADE) tool, an online repository of geospatial data for ADB projects. SPADE was developed through a collaboration between UCCRTF, ADB’s Urban Sector Group, and the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department (SDCC). It is designed to help project officers and consultants better visualize how various factors can affect a project. The web-based platform can create layers of information using socioeconomic data, population density, building footprints, and rainfall projections in 25–100 years scale over a city map. SPADE promotes a systemic approach that is needed to build climate change resilience into conception, design, and construction of infrastructure projects.
Another UCCRTF project featured in the report was the Revitalization of Informal Settlements and their Environments through a Water Sensitive Approach (RISE–Indonesia Pilot Component), in Makassar. UCCRTF support to this project included $196,000 in technical assistance and a $4.6 million investment grant to improve livability and accessibility of informal settlements and increase their resilience to climate-driven shocks such as flooding.
To date, UCCRTF has approved more than $118 million in funding for various projects in the priority countries. Of this, 61 projects (equivalent to $115 million) are ongoing. In its final two years, UCCRTF will focus its efforts on supporting project implementation and capturing results and impacts. UCCRTF is developing an application for Phase 2 of the trust fund. If approved by the UK Government, it will be available in 2021.