Second Stakeholder Dialogue on Climate Risks In Railway Investments

GCA support to the World Bank Green Railway Project  

Event description

The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) serves as a solutions broker focused on advancing climate change adaptation. GCA’s mission is to deliver tangible impacts, provide actionable knowledge, and champion the prioritization of resilient investments. GCA, in partnership with Global Affairs Canada, is supporting the World Bank financed Bangladesh Green Railway Logistics Project. This project aims to enhance freight services and redevelop railway stations along the Dhaka-Chattogram Rail Corridor, which is crucial for improving East-West connectivity and facilitating trade between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal. A new railway line from the proposed Bay Terminal to the Chittagong Goods Port Yard (CGPY) will be constructed and the existing rail links between Foujdarhat–CGPY and Dhaka–Chattogram will be upgraded through this project. 

However, the region faces significant climate threats. The GCA led National Level Infrastructure Stress-test for Bangladesh found that 93% of the railway network of Bangladesh is exposed to one or more climate hazards. Particularly the districts under the Green Railway project face fluvial and pluvial floods, extreme temperature, storm surges and cyclones, causing frequent disruption of rail services or increased travel time. These challenges are likely to intensify in the future due to climate change. This underscores the critical need to integrate climate resilience measures into the project planning and implementation. GCA’s role in this support activity to the project focuses on enhancing climate resilience and adaptation for the project. The support includes a comprehensive climate risk assessment, a list of prioritize and integrate nature-based and grey adaptation solutions with guidelines for integrating these solutions into investment phases. GCA has already delivered a 4-day “Masterclass on Gender-Responsive Climate Resilient Infrastructure PPPs” to 14 participants from Bangladesh Railway to help stakeholders incorporate climate risks into their planning.  

The primary objective of the “Second Stakeholder Dialogue on Climate Risks in Railway Investments” is to share the findings of the vulnerability analysis and the potential climate-resilient solutions for the WB Green Railway Project with the relevant stakeholders and gather their feedback. Detailed objectives of the session include: 

• To present the comprehensive findings of the climate risk assessment for the Green Railway Corridor, including identified hazards like flooding and extreme temperatures. 
• To gather technical feedback on the proposed adaptation options, including Nature-based (NbS), Gray, and Hybrid solutions. 

GCA aims to build a shared understanding and preliminary consensus on the next steps for integrating the validated findings and prioritized adaptation measures into the final project design, engineering specifications, and investment plan.