The Fifth Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP) Annual Conference was hosted by the World Bank on the topic of Sustainable Infrastructure. The conference took place at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC, from 27-28 November 2017.
Infrastructure - understood to include water supply and sanitation, flood protection, roads and transport, and energy and telecommunications - has major implications at the household level (health, education, and social mobility), at the firm level (productivity, industrial development), and at the global level (climate change, energy, forests, biodiversity, and pollution). Ensuring affordable and reliable access remains a major challenge in developing countries, but one that is further complicated by both a changing climate and changing climate policies.
The balancing act across the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability is increasingly central to the infrastructure challenge. These issues can and have been addressed from different scientific perspectives. However, despite a clear move of the academic community towards interdisciplinary projects, researchers working on specific aspects of the infrastructure agenda are not systematically interacting with each other.
This two-day conference took stock of recent advances and research challenges. It gathered the best researchers in the field, both from the academic world and from more policy-oriented backgrounds, to exchange key ideas and insights. The conference was being supported by GGKP's Sustainable Infrastructure Research Committee and the conference Scientific Committee (see below).
The conference program can be downloaded here.
9:00 am Welcome and Opening Remarks
Laura Tuck, Vice President for Sustainable Development, World Bank
Opening Remarks from the GGKP Partners:
9:15 am Keynote
Large Scale Renewables: Successes and Challenges (presentation)Mar Reguant, Northwestern University
10:00 am Plenary - Powering a Sustainable Future: Understanding Energy Infrastructure Needs
Chair: Paul Ekins, University College London
Discussant: Najib Saab, Arab Forum for Environment and Development
11:00 am Coffee Break
11:30 am Parallel Sessions A
A1 - Transport and Low Carbon Pathways
Chair: Maria Marcela Silva, Transport and ICT Global Practice, World Bank
Discussant: Shomik Mehndiratta, Transport and ICT Global Practice, World Bank
A2 - Rural Electrification
Chair: Jonathan Coony, Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice, World Bank
Discussant: Haileselassie Medhin, Ethiopian Development Research Institute
A3 (Policy Session) – Infrastructure for Disaster Risk Management: Overcoming Barriers to Scaling up Nature-based Solutions
Chair: Stéphane Hallegatte, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, World Bank
Discussants:
1:00 pm Lunch
2:00 pm Parallel Sessions B
B1 - Energy, Infrastructure and Low Carbon Pathways
Chair: Norbert Kurilla, State Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Slovakia
Discussant: Ron Benioff, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Low Emission Development Strategies Global Partnership
B2 - Transport and Strcutural Transformation
Chair: Cletus Springer, Organization of American States
Discussant: Nancy Lozano Gracia, Urban, Rural and Social Global Practice, World Bank
B3 (Policy Session) - A Sustainable Look at the Belt and Road Initiative
Chair: Mustafa Moinuddin, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies
3:30 pm Coffee Break
4:00 pm Plenary - Going with the Flow: Water Infrastructure and Sustainable Development
Chair: Guang Zhe Chen, Water Global Practice, World Bank
Discussant: Jim Hall, University of Oxford
7:00 pm Conference Dinner
9:00 am Keynote
Energy and Development (presentation)Catherine Wolfram, Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley
Discussant: Moussa Blimpo, Africa Region, World Bank
9:45 am Plenary - Regulation for Sustainable Infrastructure
Chair: Bruno Oberle, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
Discussant: Thomas Heller, Climate Policy Initiative
11:30 am Parallel Sessions C
C1 - Roads, Deforestation and Agricultural Productivity
Chair: Karla Gonzalez Carvajal, Transport and ICT Global Practice, World Bank
Discussant: Nicolas Gerber, Center for Development Research, University of Bonn
C2 - Adaptation and Long Term Decision-Making
Chair: Arame Tall, Climate Change, World Bank
Discussant: Joe Grice, Office of National Statistics, United Kingdom
C3 (Policy Session) - Assessing the Sustainability and Resource Requirements of Infrastructure Strategies
Chair: Raouf Dabbas, Friends of Environment, Jordan
2:00 pm Parallel Sessions D
D1 - Mitigation and Long Term Decision-Making
Chair: Kevin Urama, African Development Bank
Discussant: Nick Robins, Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System, UN Environment
D2 - Adaptation and Flooding
Chair: K. Vijaya Lakshmi, Development Alternatives
Discussant: Jaco Tavenier, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
D3 (Policy Session) - Implementing Sustainable Infrastructure
Chair: Alexandra Oppermann, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
4:00 pm Plenary - Sustainable Finance & Viable Investments: Where the Twain Shall Meet
Chair: Jordan Schwartz, Infrastructure, PPPS and Guarantees, World Bank
5:30 pm Closing Remarks
Chair: Benjamin Simmons, Green Growth Knowledge Platform
GGKP Advisory Committee Meeting (closed event)GGKP Knowledge Partners Workshop (closed event)
Expert Working Group on Natural Capital (closed event)
The Conference Report can be downloaded here.
Additional coverage of the conference including photos, videos, blogs and social media can be found below:
Follow the GGKP on Twitter for updates and live coverage of the Annual Conference.
Download the conference flyer.
The conference report is available at: ggkp.org/2017-Conference-Report