Abstract
Coastal gray infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and buildings, is critical for communities, and we invest significantly in it. We also invest in the restoration and maintenance of coastal green infrastructure such as wetlands and reefs, which provide many services and benefits to human communities. However, the relative scale of financial investments in different coastal sectors – that is, our global coastal investment portfolio – remains poorly understood. We identify some of the major sources of funding for coastal green and gray infrastructure globally, including international aid funds; US public and private funds for coastal conservation, restoration and management; and private (insurance) and public funds spent on rebuilding after coastal storms. For the 10-year period from 2004-2013, we identify a total of US $14 billion in funds for coastal conservation and green infrastructure and $198 billion in international aid funds for coastal grey infrastructure. Coastal storms during the same decade caused an estimated US $514 billion in damages globally, of which $214 billion were insured losses, while $3.5 billion in international aid funds were spent on relief and reconstruction after these storm events. We conclude that funds for green infrastructure make up a small fraction – roughly three per cent – of global financial investments along coastlines. We identify the major funders in different coastal spending categories and discuss ways to move toward a more balanced investment portfolio that could benefit biodiversity, prevent billions of dollars of storm damage, and help protect the lives and livelihoods of coastal residents.
Highlights
Coastlines around the world are being reshaped as human populations concentrate in coastal areas (Kummu et al, 2016)
Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics, Vol 3, Iss. 2 [2016], Art. 6 from a variety of sources to answer three key questions: 1) How much money is invested globally in coastal habitat conservation and restoration, i.e., green infrastructure? 2) How much money is invested globally to shape our coastlines for human use by building gray infrastructure? 3) What is the value of investments lost in coastal storms such as hurricanes and typhoons, and how much is spent on rebuilding damaged gray infrastructure? Based on our findings, we explore opportunities to shift the spending balance, i.e., to update our coastal investment portfolio, in ways that could save lives, protect property, and restore and conserve coastal habitats on which biodiversity and people depend
The top three donors for the $0.8 billion in pure conservation aid we identified were the Global Environment Facility (GEF; 47% of funds), the World Bank (24%), and Germany (12%) (Figure 2)
Summary
Coastlines around the world are being reshaped as human populations concentrate in coastal areas (Kummu et al, 2016). Developed nations have committed to raising $100 billion (all amounts in USD) per year by 2020 to support climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts in developing countries (UNFCCC, 2011; UNFCCC, 2016). Such investments will be critical in helping communities and nations adapt to climate change. Far less attention is paid to understanding and predicting how coastlines will change in a more immediate timeframe of upcoming years and decades, and identifying ways to improve current investments to ensure the current and future wellbeing of coastal communities and ecosystems (Reguero et al, 2014; Kron, 2013; Brown et al, 2014). Our coastal spending portfolio should be regularly reviewed and adapted as more knowledge becomes available and circumstances change
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