KATOWICE, Poland, Dec 3, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The World Bank on Monday
unveiled $200 billion in climate action investment for 2021-25, adding this
amounts to a doubling of its current five-year funding.
The World Bank said the move, coinciding with a UN climate summit meeting
of some 200 nations in Poland, represented a “significantly ramped up
ambition” to tackle climate change, “sending an important signal to the wider
global community to do the same.”
Developed countries are committed to lifting combined annual public and
private spending to $100 billion in developing countries by 2020 to fight the
impact of climate change — up from 48.5 billion in 2016 and 56.7 billion
last year, according to latest OECD data.
Southern hemisphere countries fighting the impact of warming temperatures
are nonetheless pushing northern counterparts for firmer commitments.
In a statement, the World Bank said the breakdown of the $200 billion would
comprise “approximately $100 billion in direct finance from the World Bank.”
Around one third of the remaining funding will come from two World Bank
Group agencies with the rest private capital “mobilised by the World Bank
Group.”
“If we don’t reduce emissions and build adaptation now, we’ll have 100
million more people living in poverty by 2030,” John Roome, World Bank senior
director for climate change, warned.
“And we also know that the less we address this issue proactively just in
three regions — Africa, South Asia and Latin America — we’ll have 133
million climate migrants,” Roome told AFP.
– ‘Fight the causes’ –
The bank’s financing package amounts to “about 40 billion a year, but the
direct (finance) is 27 billion per year on average,” Roome said.
He added that in the 2018 fiscal year, running from July 2017 to June this
year, the World Bank had committed $20.5 billion to climate action, compared
with an annual average of $13.5 billion for the 2014-2018 period.
Roome said the money now being earmarked amounted to “about 35 percent” of
the World Bank Group’s total financing.
Much of the climate action financing is being set aside for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions, notably through development of renewable energy
strategies.
However, the World Bank stated that “a key priority is boosting support for
climate adaptation,” given the millions of people already battling the
consequences of extreme weather.
“By ramping up direct adaptation finance to reach around $50 billion over
(fiscal) 21-25, the World Bank will, for the first time, give this equal
emphasis alongside investments that reduce emissions,” the bank stated.
Given the urgency to act in the face of sea level rise, flooding and
drought “we must fight the causes, but also adapt to the consequences that
are often most dramatic for the world’s poorest people,” said World Bank CEO
Kristalina Georgieva.
By stepping up financial aid to developing countries worst affected,
Georgieva said the bank was committed to adapting infrastructure while
investing in “climate smart agriculture, sustainable water management and
responsive social safety nets” as well as early response networks.
“Even if we can keep global warming down to 2 degrees Celsius we know
you’re gonna need a significant amount of adaptation in places like Chad,
Mozambique or Bangladesh,” said Roome.
The countries whose representatives are meeting at the UN climate summit
which opened Sunday in the Polish city of Katowice are seeking to make good
on commitments made in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
That agreement saw countries commit to limiting global temperature rises to
well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and to the safer cap
of 1.5C if at all possible.