All roads lead to the Paris Agreement!

Developing sustainable road networks involves analyzing their overall impact on climate change, specifically in relation to the universally agreed principles. The Paris Agreement serves as a crucial point of reference in this regard. Recently, a group of 10 Multilateral Development Banks, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Investment Bank, have collaborated to establish a comprehensive framework. This framework aims to assess the alignment of new operations and project financing with the principles outlined in the Paris Agreement.

This framework aims to ensure alignment of the activities with two principles:

- Climate mitigation goals (BB1)

- Climate adaptation goals (BB2)

Climate mitigation goals

Figure1: Decision-making approach for determining the alignment of direct investment lending operations with the Paris Agreement’s mitigation goals (BB1)

Source:  Joint MDB Methodological Principles for Assessment of Paris Agreement Alignment of New operations Direct Investment Lending Operations Version 1.0 June 2023

The mitigation goals aim to assess the impact of an activity in terms of its contribution to a low-carbon pathway on a global scale and within a specific context, such as a country's NDC. The BB1 criteria includes a universal standard that ensures alignment with a 'universally aligned list'. For the road sector, this includes:

- Building roads with low traffic volumes to provide access to communities that currently lack all-weather access;

- Upgrading, rehabilitating, reconstructing, and maintaining roads without expanding their capacity;

- Promoting electric and non-motorized urban mobility.

If meeting one of the 3 above criteria, then the road is said to be aligned with the BB1 criteria.

Additionally, there are specific criteria for projects that do not align with the aforementioned criteria. These projects undergo a thorough evaluation that takes into consideration the national and sectoral context. This evaluation is based on a set of five criteria, which includes assessing the project's alignment with the country, region, and sector's decarbonization roadmap. One of these criteria, known as SC5, focuses on the quantitative impact of the operation. It involves assigning a monetary value to the costs and benefits associated with climate change risks and relevant climate policies. Each Multilateral Development Bank is expected to apply SC5 using their own internal methods and approaches. This may include the establishment of shadow carbon prices to streamline economic analysis.

Climate Adaptation Goals 

Figure 2: MDB Decision-making approach for determining the alignment of direct investment lending operations with the Paris Agreement’s climate change adaptation and resilience goals

Source:  Joint MDB Methodological Principles for Assessment of Paris Agreement Alignment of New operations Direct Investment Lending Operations Version 1.0 June 2023

The adaptation goals (BB2) aim to evaluate the potential physical risks and the project's alignment with the country's own strategy for adaptation and resilience to climate change.

The criteria involve assessing the vulnerabilities and risks associated with climate change and implementing measures to address them.

In the context of the road sector, our analysis indicates that roads will face significant challenges due to the escalating impacts of climate change, such as extreme heat, wider temperature fluctuations in a shorter time frame, increased heavy rainfall, and landslides.

Using digital twins to deliver Paris Aligned road infrastructure

Through advanced digitalization, innovative solutions such as ORIS Materials Intelligence can revolutionize the way road networks are developed, ensuring their alignment with global climate goals. With ORIS, a comprehensive measurement of the carbon impact of a road project can be conducted, allowing for a thorough understanding of its environmental footprint. By utilizing sophisticated simulation techniques, potential strategies can be explored to minimize this impact, representing the first crucial step in assessing the climate economic implications of a road network.

Building on data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), ORIS enables the mapping of climate change exposures and risks on road networks. This powerful tool provides a detailed analysis of how climate-related factors, such as extreme heat, freeze-thaw cycles, precipitation, identification of flood-prone areas, may affect the durability and resilience of roads. By visualizing these potential risks, decision-makers can proactively plan and implement adaptation measures from the very inception of a road project.

In conclusion, the integration of advanced digital solutions like ORIS Materials Intelligence offers an innovative way to develop sustainable roads. Given the complexity of the approach, of the criteria and of the data required to make such assessments, digital solutions support the road construction industry in making the right choices though comprehensive assessments in a short period of time. By accurately measuring the carbon impact, simulating strategies to reduce it, and mapping the potential climate change impacts, ORIS enables decision-makers to design road infrastructure aligned with global climate goals.

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