Library | ESG issues
Buildings & Infrastructure
Buildings and infrastructure include physical structures and systems such as commercial buildings, roads, and energy networks. Sustainable infrastructure focuses on optimising and retrofitting existing assets while developing new ones that integrate environmental stewardship, social equity, and sustainable design. Investing in infrastructure can support sustainable development and ensure that all people have access to safe, affordable, reliable, and high-quality infrastructure.
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Beyond the parcel: Unlocking risk assessment of complex infrastructure assets
This First Street report applies climate risk modelling to five infrastructure asset types — airports, residential developments, rail networks, transmission lines, and toll roads — demonstrating how localised physical hazards translate into material revenue losses and operational downtime, and why traditional parcel-based risk tools are inadequate for complex infrastructure.
Urban heat risk management: Resource package
This resource package provides practical guidance for local and national governments on managing urban heat risks through governance, planning, nature-based solutions and emergency preparedness. Drawing on global evidence and city case studies, it outlines strategies to strengthen urban resilience to increasing extreme heat.
Making your city investable: A practical guide to green finance
This guide outlines how local governments can access green finance by shifting from ad hoc initiatives to embedded institutional strategies. Highlighting successful international examples, it emphasises the importance of transparent governance, predictable project pipelines, and standardised reporting to build investor confidence and secure long-term climate capital.
Sustainable asset valuation of mining closures in artisanal and small-scale gold mines in Marmato, Colombia: Nature-based infrastructure’s role in mining closure plans
This report assesses mine-closure strategies for artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Marmato, Colombia. Applying a systems-based valuation methodology, it highlights the economic and environmental benefits of progressive formalisation and closure, emphasising early risk reduction, physical stabilisation, and ecosystem rehabilitation to improve territorial safety.
U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters database
Climate Central’s database tracks the most costly U.S. weather and climate disasters since 1980, providing data on events causing $1 billion in damage.
Underwriting the future of resilience: Developing insurable and bankable infrastructure
This report explores how the insurance industry assesses physical climate risks for new social infrastructure projects. It identifies five key enablers to integrate climate resilience across project lifecycles, advocating for early stakeholder engagement and forward-looking risk assessments to ensure long-term asset insurability, bankability, and value in a changing climate.
Catalysing partnerships to mobilise infrastructure financing and investment in low- and middle-income countries
This learning note explores how an ecosystem approach to infrastructure financing can mobilise capital in low- and middle-income countries. It highlights the importance of early finance engagement, de-risking mechanisms, and integrated partnerships to transform technically sound projects into commercially viable investments.
Mapping heat inequality across neighbourhoods in Delhi: Integrating geospatial and citizen data for climate resilience
Delhi heat vulnerability is shaped by neighbourhood density, limited green cover and unequal access to cooling. Using geospatial and household survey data, the report finds higher heat exposure increases illness, sleep disruption and productivity loss, while targeted greening, micro-level heat planning and energy-efficient cooling could improve urban climate resilience.
Transforming the urban climate project preparation ecosystem: Emerging findings on how enhanced collaboration can deliver greater coherence, efficiency and impact
The report examines weaknesses in urban climate project preparation and argues that stronger coordination between cities, financiers and support organisations could improve coherence, efficiency and project impact. It identifies structural and operational barriers and proposes collaborative reforms to strengthen climate finance delivery.
Climate risks to Syria’s urban water and sanitation systems
Syria’s urban water and sanitation systems face rising climate-driven water scarcity, infrastructure damage and growing demand. The report recommends integrated water management, infrastructure rehabilitation, agricultural water efficiency, wastewater reuse and stronger governance to reduce future water insecurity, contamination risks and maladaptive investment.
Building the financial case for urban adaptation: Guidance and case studies
C40 and Rebel outline how cities can structure urban adaptation projects to attract private finance, using ten case studies. Bankability depends on revenue logic, risk allocation, public de-risking, early financier engagement and credible monitoring.
Deploying established climate technologies and solutions for buildings
Policy brief outlining market-ready climate technologies for buildings, including heat pumps, insulation, renewable energy systems and circular construction practices. The report highlights financing, policy and capacity barriers, particularly in developing economies, and recommends stronger building codes, targeted funding, and integration of traditional knowledge to accelerate low-emissions, climate-resilient buildings.
ANREV (Asian Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles)
ANREV (Asian Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles) is a not-for-profit industry body supporting institutional investors in Asia-Pacific real estate funds. It provides research, indices and market data, promotes transparency and best practice, and enables informed investment decisions across non-listed real estate markets.
The 12th national risk assessment: Property prices in Peril
First Street argues climate risk is reshaping US housing via higher insurance costs and climate-driven migration, with projected net residential property value losses of about US$1.2 trillion by 2055 and 84% of census tracts facing some negative valuation effects.
PerilScope: Strategic Deep Dive Copernicus Global Climate Highlights 2025 — From Records to Operating Conditions in the 3°C World SRP® Frame
The article interprets Copernicus’s Global Climate Highlights 2025 as a shift from episodic extremes to a structurally warmer, more volatile baseline. It argues that persistent temperature exceedances, ocean heat, cryosphere decline, and overlapping hazards demand a move from climate risk awareness to disciplined adaptation and continuity planning.
Advancing adaptation: Mapping costs from cooling to coastal defenses
This McKinsey Global Institute report assesses current and projected costs of adapting to heat, drought, flooding and wildfires under a 2°C warming scenario. It estimates $190 billion is spent annually today, rising to $1.2 trillion by 2050 for developed-economy protection standards, with benefits outweighing costs.
