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Resilience essential for infrastructure development in SIDS

November 16, 2017 4:39 am

Climate resilience across the transport sector is vital to keep economies running in the wake of disasters caused by climate change.

Speaking at a side event at COP23 in Bonn, Germany, Attorney General and Minister for Climate Change Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum noted that infrastructure, its development and the transport sector in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) needed to be responsive given the prevalence of cyclones, flooding and other unusual climatic events.

“Therefore there is an important need to actually build resilience not just into your economy overall to be buffered by the various shocks weather it’s the global financial markets but it’s also for us in respect of the shocks that you get from climatic events and we need to be able to build that resilience.”

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Sayed-Khaiyum explained that in the immediate aftermath of a disaster a robust transport system enabled a more efficient recovery for countries.

This he said extends beyond buses, boats and cars to roads, jetties, bridges and major road networks.

COP23 will conclude tomorrow after two weeks of talks on global climate change.