Date and location: November 8, 12:20 p.m. in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, 132 Goldwin Smith Hall
Stephen Hammer serves as an advisor of global partnerships and strategy for the climate change team at the World Bank and leads on the bank’s engagement on climate change issues with the United Nations, the G7, the G20, and select other institutions. He formerly served as manager of climate policy for the World Bank Group (WBG), and before that, as a lead specialist on cities and climate change. Prior to joining the WBG in 2013, Hammer was a member of the graduate faculty at MIT and Columbia University, where he taught classes on energy systems, energy policy, benefit-cost analysis, and urban climate change issues. Hammer has served as an advisor to Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC team; the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s work on urban green growth; President Bush’s Commission on Environmental Quality; and the Chinese Ministry of Housing, Urban, and Rural Development, for which he developed and led training programs for more than 250 Chinese mayors on urban energy and climate issues. Hammer holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, an M.P.P. from Harvard University, and a B.S. from the University of California–Davis.
Abstract:
As urbanization trends become more prominent globally, questions arise about how cities will develop physically, demographically, economically, and technologically. Each dimension has implications for the type and scale of infrastructure needed to facilitate —or manage —these changes. Climate change raises the ante on all of these issues. The cost of the direct physical impacts of climate change may be exceeded by the indirect economic losses suffered if essential infrastructure systems and supply chains are forced offline. In the Global South, the problem is even more complex because many cities already facing an infrastructure deficit must also grapple with the growing demand for infrastructure sufficient to accommodate their burgeoning populations. Where will the resources come from to pay for climate-related repairs or these new or replacement climate-resilient urban infrastructure systems? This talk will explore what funding and financing instruments may be available to local governments and infrastructure system operators in cities around the world.