The outcome of the analysis showed that while the risks to assets is significant, energy and operational costs outweighed the cost of building climate resilience into the project design. In this island based setting where energy costs are high and material handling (i.e., sludge disposal) would incur significant transportation costs, climate resilient systems that are low energy and low carbon profile can be cost effective. This was a very favourable result for the client as the long-term sustainability of the assets and low on-going energy costs were two key factors that initially did not appear to be complementary. One key finding was that, as expected the cost of building climate resilient infrastructure significantly increased the overall capital cost of the systems. The significance of the incremental costs associated with climate resilient design can detract from the willingness of developing countries to consider climate change adaptation in infrastructure design. It is therefore critical for financiers to appropriately incorporate climate risks into financial analyses to demonstrate how the incremental cost to a project for climate resilient design is outweighed by the costs if the risks are not mitigated.
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