The proximity of urban centers to the coast makes our Caribbean cities vulnerable to rising sea levels and the increasingly devastating effects of storms. In the Dominican Republic, 25% of the built-up area between 1995 and 2015 is located within three kilometers of the coast, making these areas highly exposed to climate events such as hurricanes and floods. This affects not … [Read more...] about Resilient Urban Planning to Climate Change, the IDB’s Commitment to the Colonial City of Santo Domingo
Benoit Lefevre
Benoit Lefevre, PhD is an urban economist and an engineer in agronomics working as a senior specialist at the Climate Change division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), currently based in the country office of the Dominican Republic. His work focuses on design and implementation of national and local policy and investment in all sectors of the bank, and on improving climate friendliness of IDB-Group operations for both mitigation and adaptation, leveraging climate finance and catalyzing private investment in clean and resilient solutions. Prior to joining the Dominican office of IDB, Benoit worked at IDB Headquarter in Washington DC where he led or participated in operations on transport, energy, cities and natural disasters in Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador, and Paraguay. Benoit also represented the IDB in the MDBs joined Working Group for Mitigation Climate Finance Tracking, and in the IFI Technical Working Group on GHG accounting. Previously, Benoit worked for the World Resources Institute (WRI) as Global Director of Energy, Climate & Finance of the Center for Sustainable Cities. In this role he led activities on alternative business models, municipal finance, capacity-building, upstream project preparation, urban energy modeling and integrated transport-land use policies. Prior to joining WRI, Benoit was director of the Urban Fabric program at IDDRI and visiting scholar at Berkeley University. Trained engineer, he holds a PhD in economics and finance, and did his post-doctorate at Colombia University. Benoit was Lead-author for 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC. He is author of 5 books, several academic papers and opinion columns.
IDB´s role revitalizing heritage housing in the Colonial City of Santo Domingo
A climatic approach for economic and social development The Colonial City is the oldest urban nucleus of Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. It was the first permanent European settlement on the continent, serving as an urban model to be replicated in other colonial cities in America. On December 8, 1990, the Colonial City of Santo Domingo (CCSD) was declared a … [Read more...] about IDB´s role revitalizing heritage housing in the Colonial City of Santo Domingo