Fifth Green Growth Knowledge Platform Annual Conference (2017)

TO
Location :
Washington DC, USA

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). 

Scientific Committee:

  • Emmanuelle Auriol (Toulouse School of Economics)
  • Stefan Ambec (Toulouse School of Economics)
  • Juliano Assunção (Climate Policy Initiative, PUC-Rio)
  • Simon Buckle (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)
  • Ottmar Edenhofer (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research)
  • Paul Ekins (University College London)
  • Marianne Fay (World Bank)
  • Christian Gollier (Toulouse School of Economics)
  • Michael Grubb (University College London)
  • Jim Hall (University of Oxford)
  • Mushfiq Mobarak (Yale University)
  • Jaehak Oh (The Korea Transport Institute) 
  • Mar Reguant (Northwestern University)
  • Keywan Riahi (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis)
  • Stéphane Straub (Toulouse School of Economics and World Bank)

 

Program
Coverage
Outcomes

The conference program can be downloaded here.

Monday 27 November 2017

9:00 am Welcome and Opening Remarks

Laura Tuck, Vice President for Sustainable Development, World Bank

Opening Remarks from the GGKP Partners:

  • Orestes Anastasia, Global Green Growth Institute
  • Kumi Kitamori, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
  • Fulai Sheng, UN Environment

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

  • Energy Investment Needs for Fulfilling the Paris Agreement and Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (presentation)
    Keywan Riahi, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
  • Charting the Diffusion of Power Sector Reform in the Developing World (paper) (presentation)
    Alejandro Moreno, previously World Bank

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:

  • Julie Rozenberg, Sustainable Development Practice Group, World Bank
  • Glenn-Marie Lange, Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice, World Bank
  • Jonny Sadler, Manchester Climate Change Agency 

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

  • Decarbonizing Electricity Generation with Intermittent Sources of Energy (paper) (presentation)
    Stefan Ambec, Toulouse School of Economics
  • Demand Side Management: A Case for Disruptive Behaviour (paper) (presentation)
    Dina Subkhankulova, University College London Energy Institute
  • Investment in Energy Efficiency, Adoption of Renewable Energy and Household Behaviour: Evidence from OECD countries (paper)
    Prudence Dato, Savoie Mont Blanc University

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

  • The Low Carbon Transition and Sustainable Infrastructure (presentation)
    Kumi Kitamori, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
  • Belt and Road: Opportunity and Challenges for Sustainable Development (presentation)
    Fulai Sheng, UN Environment
  • Who Wins, Who Loses: Articulating the Spatially Differentiated Impacts of BRI Investments (presentation)
    Somik Lall, Urban, Rural and Social Global Practice, World Bank

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

Tuesday 28 November 2017

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

  • Can Supranational Infrastructure Regulation Compensate for National Institutional Weaknesses? (paper)
    Emmanuelle Auriol, Toulouse School of Economics
  • Funding and Financing Regulated Infrastructure
    Stéphane Straub, Toulouse School of Economics
  • The Policy and Regulation of UK Electricity Market Reform (presentation)
    Michael Grubb, University College London

Discussant: Thomas Heller, Climate Policy Initiative

11:00 am Coffee Break

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

  • Term Structures of Discount Rates: An international perspective (paper) (presentation)
    Christian Gollier, Toulouse School of Economics
  • Application of DMDU (Decision Making Under Uncertainty Methodology) on Korean Transportation Infrastructure Feasibility Study (paper) (presentation)
    Ki Han Song, Korea Transport Institute
  • System-of-Systems Framework for Global Infrastructure Vulnerability Assessments (paper) (presentation)
    Raghav Pant, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford

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

  • The Weight of Cities: Resource Requirements of Future Urbanisation
    Anu Ramaswami, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
  • Municipal Natural Asset Management as a Sustainable Infrastructure Strategy: The Emerging Evidence (paper) (presentation)
    Roy Brooke, Municipal Natural Assets Initiative
  • Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) Tool (tool) (presentation)
    Oshani Perera, International Institute for Sustainable Development
  • Assessing the Sustainability and Climate Resilience of Infrastructure to Catalyse Better Decisions (paper) (presentation)
    Josh Sawislak, AECOM and Ryan Bartlett, WWF

1:00 pm Lunch

2:00 pm Parallel Sessions D

D1 - Mitigation and Long Term Decision-Making

Chair: Kevin Urama, African Development Bank

  • Innovation and Adaptability of Energy Systems: Some Evidence and a Mathematical Exploration (presentation)
    Michael Grubb, University College London
  • Keeping Pigou on Tracks: Second-best Carbon Pricing and Infrastructure Provision (presentation)
    Jan Siegmeier, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change
  • Dead on Arrival? Implicit Stranded Assets in Leading IAM Scenarios (paper)
    Alexander Pfeiffer, Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford

Discussant: Nick Robins, Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System, UN Environment

D2 - Adaptation and Flooding

Chair: K. Vijaya Lakshmi, Development Alternatives

  • Global Investment Costs for Coastal Defense Through the 21st Century (paper) (presentation)
    Robert J. Nicholls, University of Southampton
  • The Spatial Exposure of China’s Infrastructure System to Flooding Risks in the Context of Climate Change (paper) (presentation)
    Xi Hu, University of Oxford
  • Prioritization of Road Interventions in Nampula and Zambezia, Mozambique under Changing Flood Risk and Other Deep Uncertainties (presentation)
    Xavier Espinet Alegre, Sustainable Development Practice Group, World Bank

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

3:30 pm Coffee Break

4:00 pm Plenary - Sustainable Finance & Viable Investments: Where the Twain Shall Meet

Chair: Jordan Schwartz, Infrastructure, PPPS and Guarantees, World Bank

  • Maria Eduarda Gouvea Berto, Secretary of Finance, Municipality of Rio de Janeiro, former Managing Director, Estruturadora Brasileira de Projetos (EBP)
  • Nick Robins, Co-Director, Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System, UN Environment
  • Leonardo Martínez-Díaz, Global Director, Sustainable Finance Center, World Resources Institute
  • Jim Hempstead, Managing Director, Moody’s Investors Services
  • Patricia Rollin, Managing Director, Wye Holdings

5:30 pm Closing Remarks

Chair: Benjamin Simmons, Green Growth Knowledge Platform

  • Kumi Kitamori, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
  • Marianne Fay, Sustainable Development Practice Group, World Bank

Wednesday 29 November 2017

GGKP Advisory Committee Meeting (closed event)
GGKP Knowledge Partners Workshop (closed event)

Thursday 30 November 2017

Expert Working Group on Natural Capital (closed event)

Friday 1 December 2017

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