Key Details
AIIB’s Infrastructure for Planetary Health: Translating Theory into Practice uses a theory of change and project examples across 11 AIIB members to trace how infrastructure choices can affect ecosystems, climate risks and people’s health.
Part of the Framework | What It Means for Projects |
|---|---|
Nature-positive infrastructure | Treat wetlands, forests, watersheds and other ecosystems as assets that provide services such as flood protection and water regulation. |
Climate-adaptive and climate-mitigating infrastructure | Design energy, transport, water and health systems to reduce emissions and pollution while continuing to function through climate shocks. |
India example | The US$530-million Resilient Kerala Program, as named in the report, combines local risk planning with work on health, water, agriculture and roads. Its financing is linked to independently verified agreed results. |
The report draws on projects at different stages — including completed work, ongoing programmes and proposed investments.
Nature Can Do Work That Conventional Infrastructure Must Otherwise Perform
The review’s first pathway begins with a practical question: what service does an ecosystem provide? Wetlands can hold stormwater, forests can protect catchments, and vegetation can reduce heat and runoff. If those functions are lost, engineered systems may have to carry more of the burden.
AIIB therefore proposes considering ecosystems in infrastructure planning and appraisal, including alongside built assets. A city might combine restored wetlands with drains and pumps; an irrigation project might pair engineering repairs with catchment restoration to manage sediment. The report calls this green-grey infrastructure: natural and engineered measures designed to work together.
Its project examples show why this involves more than planting or restoration alone. In an Indonesian dam-safety project, catchment revegetation was combined with structural work and community participation, with local arrangements for continued care of the restored areas. A Sri Lankan wetland example examines the flood-protection and other services that could be lost through land conversion. Both cases make long-term maintenance and the value of ecosystem servicesrelevant to investment decisions.
Roads, Water Systems and Hospitals Can Reduce Health Risks
The second pathway applies to familiar infrastructure. A road that remains usable during flooding helps preserve access to services. Reliable water and sanitation systems can reduce disease risks after extreme weather. A hospital designed for heat and floods, with dependable power and water, is better placed to continue care during a disruption.
The report also links energy and transport choices to exposure to air pollution. Its point is not that every infrastructure project must pursue the same set of goals. It is that climate risk and health effects should be considered when projects are designed, so that a new asset delivers its intended service reliably as environmental conditions change.
Keralam Shows How the Approach Extends Beyond Individual Assets
The report’s Indian example, the Resilient Kerala Program (2021–2026), focuses in part on the climate-vulnerable Pamba river basin. It is co-financed by AIIB, the World Bank and Agence Française de Développement at US$125 million each, alongside US$155 million from the state government.
The programme connects risk-informed local planning and disaster financing with work on river-basin management, disease surveillance, agriculture and resilient roads. It supports localised disaster-risk plans for 263 local self-government institutions. This is the report’s clearest illustration of a shift from protecting one asset at a time towards strengthening the systems that communities rely on during floods, disease outbreaks and other shocks.
Its Program for Results financing ties disbursements to independently verified agreed results. That gives the planning and institutional work a place in the financing arrangement, alongside physical infrastructure.
Financing and Time Horizons Shape What Can Be Delivered
Ecological benefits often take years to mature, while infrastructure budgets and project assessments may favour nearer-term outputs. The review points to sustained maintenance, community stewardship and longer-term measurement as ways to keep those benefits in view.
It also examines policy-based and results-based finance, green bonds and other approaches to attracting capital. The common issue is how to make the value of cleaner water, lower flood risk or healthier ecosystems visible in project appraisal and financing decisions. Valuing those benefits can strengthen a project’s case, but projects still need workable institutions, clear responsibilities and credible evidence that the benefits endure.
What Is Planetary Health?
Planetary health describes the connection between human wellbeing and the condition of natural systems. In this report, it is a way of asking whether infrastructure provides essential services while also affecting climate risks, ecosystems and exposure to health hazards. It applies to decisions about where to build, what to protect, how to finance a project and how to judge its performance over time.
Policy Relevance
The Keralam example gives Indian policymakers a concrete starting point: local risk information can shape investments across several services, while agreed results can make institutional changes part of what financing supports. For urban and water projects elsewhere, the report raises a related choice — when to protect or restore a wetland or catchment alongside drains, roads and other engineered works.
Putting that approach into practice requires public investment appraisals to account for service reliability, environmental effects and health risks, not only construction costs and assets delivered. It also requires assigning responsibility for maintaining natural as well as built infrastructure. The report offers a framework and illustrative cases; project-specific evidence remains necessary to decide which combination delivers the greatest benefit in each location.
Follow the Full Report Here: AIIB Publications Hub — Infrastructure for Planetary Health: Translating Theory into Practice.