With the adoption of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (2015), the countries made a commitment that goes beyond 2020. They pledged to, in the medium and long term: stop the increase in the global average temperature at 2 °C – and to make the best effort to maintain it below 1.5 °C – which includes directing financial resources to development routes that are low in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and, in turn, resilient to climate change. For buildings, this means, for example, improving and expanding measures such as energy efficiency and identifying the physical risks that climate change presents to infrastructure. The inclusion of these measures to reduce GHG emissions and to reduce the vulnerability in buildings, in addition to generating benefits for the environment, can generate social and economic benefits that result in the improvement of the quality of operations. This represents, especially in public social infrastructure buildings, an excellent opportunity to show the application of innovative practices in construction-related issues in the region and to promote its dissemination from emblematic projects that can become cultural references for societies in which they are inserted.
The building infrastructure 2 of several sectors, both in the public and private areas, represents a significant percentage of IDB loans and, therefore, a great opportunity to boost the FC through the promotion of infrastructure that mitigates and adapts to CC. However, in 2016, for example, the Social Sector only accounted for 0.2% of climate finance of the total amount approved and, in 2017, to 11.1%, despite having important infrastructure componentsa. This increase demonstrates the growing interest in including measures that contribute to mitigate or adapt buildings to CC. However, many Team Leaders, even if they intend to include aspects related to CC, do not have the information to determine which of the measures are relevant and/or how to leave 2 Building infrastructure is understood as the construction of the buildings and all the work linked to it. In the Education Division (SCL/EDU), for example, approximately 75% of operations have infrastructure components, which represent approximately 50% of the total amount approved. them properly reflected in the documents taken into account when making the FC accounting.
This document, organized by the Social Infrastructure Unit, with the collaboration of specialists in CC, energy, water, and solid waste, is intended to provide Guide for the incorporation and accounting of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures to IDB’s Team Leaders and project executors that include building design and construction. The main goals are: (i) to encourage climate investments for all projects that include construction and/or renovation of buildings and/or equipment replacement, (ii) to improve the capacity for adaptation and resilience of buildings to CC and (iii) to guarantee the accounting of investments eligible as climate finance in Bank operations to contribute to the 30% goal, in accordance with the Joint Methodology of the MDBs.