Tools

Strengthening Climate Resilience: Guidance for Governments and Development Co-operation aims to support governments of developing countries and providers of development co-operation in strengthening the resilience of human and natural systems to the impacts of climate change. It highlights three overall considerations to help ensure planning and implementation of actions to enhance climate resilience also support broader sustainable development objectives. It further outlines four mechanisms that can facilitate a focus on climate resilience in national, sub-national and sectoral policy processes, and three key enablers for strengthening climate resilience. The guidance can be used by different stakeholders across levels of governance, including government officials at national and sub-national levels, and providers of development co-operation. It may also provide insights to other development partners, including civil society organisations (CSOs) and private-sector actors. 

The tool kit is a set of products intended to support national and local government officials, planning practitioners, and policy makers of transitional and developing countries to design and implement a process for developing a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP). It was designed complementary to the “Guidelines for Developing and Implementing a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP)” and provides additional resources for the different phases of drafting a sustainable urban mobility plan.

These Guidelines support the construction of pedestrian and cycling infrastructure in African cities that ensures safety, accessibility and comfort for users. Many cities across the continent of Africa have a large percentage of walking and cycling as a mode share for trips. While walking and cycling is often fundamental in African cities, they often lack the infrastructure and design to make that safe and comfortable.

The SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting is a measurement framework for biophysical data, tracking changes and linking them to economic and other human activity from the perspective of entire ecosystems, considering how individual environmental assets interact as part of natural processes within a given spatial area. To do so, the tool applies the accounting concepts and rules to the emerging field of ecosystem assessment and measurement in response to demands for integrated information on environmental sustainability, human wellbeing and economic growth and development. It offers a system of five accounts that together present comprehensive view of ecosystems and their services.

SASB standards are a set of industry-specific standards that identify the subset of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues most important for the sustainability accounting of companies. The standards are designed to enable companies to disclose their financially-material sustainability information to investors in a cost-effective and decision-useful manner. Standards are available for 77 different industries. In the area of infrastructure, standards are available for (1) electric utilities & power generators, (2) engineering & construction services, (3) gas utilities & distributors, (4) home builders, (5) real estate, (6) real estate services, (7) waste management and (8) water utilities & services.

Sustainable was developed to showcase the influence of infrastructure (and coming soon: procurement) on the SDG targets that relate to various cross-cutting themes in development, such as women’s empowerment and, coming soon, environmental protection and resilience or disaster risk reduction. The tool informs the users of the actions that can be undertaken while implementing infrastructure projects to support the achievement of specific SDG targets related to these themes. The information is specific to the different infrastructure sectors and includes recommendation on when to implement these measures during the infrastructure life cycle.

SWMM is an open-source software application that can be used for single event or long-term simulations of water runoff quality and quantity. The tool evaluates gray infrastructure stormwater control strategies, such as pipes and storm drains, and is useful for comparing the effectiveness and costs of green or gray hybrid stormwater control solutions, especially in urban areas. Furthermore, SWMM allows engineers to determine the effectiveness of green infrastructure practices as low impact development controls in managing runoff. The software provides an integrated environment for editing input data and running simulations.

The Sustainability Bond Guidelines promote the integrity of the Sustainability Bond market through recommendations for transparency, disclosure, and reporting, outlining a clear process and disclosure for issuers, which investors, banks, underwriters, placement agents and others may use to understand the characteristics of any given Sustainability Bond. The evaluation of the use of proceeds represents the core of the Sustainability Bond Guidelines. They must exclusively apply to finance or re-finance a combination of both green and social projects. The Sustainability Bond Guidelines are based on a combination of the Green Bond Guidelines and the Social Bond Guidelines of the International Capital Market Association.

SuRe® – the Standard for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure is a third-party verified, global voluntary standard to drive the integration of sustainability and resilience aspects into infrastructure development and upgrade projects by providing guidance. The tool also serves as a globally applicable common language tool for infrastructure project developers, financiers and public sector institutions. Infrastructure projects wishing to undergo SuRe® certification are subject to independent third-party audits provided by an independent accredited Certification Body. After initial certification, surveillance audits are carried out annually.

SOURCE is a multilateral online platform to bring systemic change in the way governments define, develop and manage their sustainable infrastructure projects for both traditional procurement and Public Private Partnerships. It uses sector-specific questions sets covering all the stages of the project lifecycle and allowing for the definition of specific targets to fulfil the SDGs and Paris Agreement. The online tool includes a broad set of functionalities, including project team management, customizable project timeline and task management, document management, portfolio and project monitoring dashboards, consistency checks on project documentation, a Project Preparation Facilities Finder, knowledge management and a public pipeline for project promotion.