Betting on Resilience: Mobilizing Private Investment to Finance Disaster Resistance
BY PORTER GRAHAM LOCAL GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS DIRECTOR
26 INSIGHT • May 2020
The Problem: Resilient Infrastructure Costs a Lot In June 2019, the Institute for Sustainable Government’s Center for Climate Integrity released the first comprehensive, community-level cost estimate for armoring America’s coastal public infrastructure where threatened by projected sea-level rise. Employing conservative projections assuming aggressive carbon emissions reduction scenarios to capture a low-range forecast of sea-level rise, the study developed cost projections for the construction of coastal seawalls to protect transportation infrastructure, public utilities, port facilities, drinking water supply and storm water systems from projected 2040 flood hazard conditions. North Carolina came in third in estimated total cost in the contiguous United States, facing an about $34.8 billion obligation. Equating to about 70 percent of North Carolina’s total government spending for Fiscal Year 2018, this figure reflects the staggering disproportion at which public capital resources across the United States compare to the cost of constructing climate-resilient infrastructure. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts investigating potential financing mechanisms for resilience initiatives within the City of Boston’s Imagine Boston 2030 comprehensive plan concluded in 2018 that maximum conceivable contributions from federal and state sources would
