International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure

International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure

News: Recently, the Prime Minister addressed the inaugural session of the fourth edition of the International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure via video message.

Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)
• CDRI is a multi-stakeholder global partnership of national governments, UN (United Nations) agencies and programmes, multilateral development banks and financing mechanisms, the private sector, and knowledge institutions.
• PM Modi launched it during his speech at the UN Climate Action Summit in 2019.
• It aims to promote the resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks in support of sustainable development.
• So far its members include 30 countries and 8 Organisations. The CDRI secretariat is based in New Delhi, India.

Significance for India:
• It provides platform for India to emerge as a global leader on Climate Action and Disaster Resilience.
• CDRI boosts India's soft power, but more importantly it has wider connotation than just economics, as synergy between disaster risk reduction, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Climate Accord provides for sustainable and inclusive growth.
• Complement the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
• Facilitate India’s support to resilient infrastructure in Africa, Asia, etc.
• Provide access to knowledge, technology, and capacity development for infra developers.
• Create opportunities for Indian infrastructure & technology firms to expand services abroad.

What is the difference between Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (DRI) from Climate Resilient Infrastrucure?
• DRI also includes addressing disaster risk due to geophysical and geomorphological hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, tsunami and volcanic activity. Since infrastructure systems are built for long life cycles, it is imperative that DRI addresses risks emanating from such low-frequency high impact events.
• DRI must deal with technological hazards like nuclear radiation, dam failures, chemical spills, explosions which are not directly linked to climate.
• More than 90% of disasters are a manifestation of weather and climate-related extreme events. So, making infrastructure climate-resilient also contributes to making it disaster resilient.
• Some CRI efforts may focus on reducing carbon footprint of Infrastructure. While this may be a byproduct of DRI, DRI does not explicitly address these aspects.