On Monday, the World Bank announced its attempt to fight climate crisis by ramping up its investments. With United Nation’s climate talks beginning this week in Katowice, Poland, the World Bank said it will invest around $200 billion over 5 years to “boost adaptation and resilience in a rapidly warming world, especially in the world’s poorest countries,” EcoWatch reported.
This will almost double its current climate targets for years 2021-2025 because the World Bank, which provides financial, advisory and technical assistance to developing countries, recognizes the mounting impacts climate change has on the lives and livelihoods of the global economy.
The World Banks is urging the greater global community to also ramp up its investments by “putting countries and communities in charge of building a safer, more climate-resilient future,” stated in a press release.
“Climate change is an existential threat to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. These new targets demonstrate how seriously we are taking this issue, investing and mobilizing $200 billion over five years to combat climate change,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement. “We are pushing ourselves to do more and to go faster on climate and we call on the global community to do the same.
The $200 billion will be comprised of “approximately $100 billion in direct finance from the World Bank (IBRD/IDA), and approximately $100 billion of combined direct finance from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and private capital mobilized by the World Bank Group,” the press release reported.
“The new financing will ensure that adaptation is undertaken in a systematic fashion, and the World Bank will develop a new rating system to track and incentivize global progress. Actions will include supporting higher-quality forecasts, early warning systems and climate information services to better prepare 250 million people in 30 developing countries for climate risks. In addition, the expected investments will build more climate-responsive social protection systems in 40 countries, and finance climate smart agriculture investments in 20 countries.”
The World Bank will also help countries integrate several climate considerations such as policy planning, investment design, implementation and evaluation. The World Bank will also assist at least 20 countries design and implement transformative low-carbon policies in energy, cities and food and land-use. As outlined in a press release:
In Energy: Support the generation, integration, and enabling infrastructure for 36 GW of renewable energy and support 1.5 million GWh equivalent of energy savings through efficiency improvement;
In Cities: Help 100 cities achieve low-carbon and resilient urban planning and transit-oriented development;
In Food and Land-Use: Increase integrated landscape management in up to 50 countries, covering up to120 million hectares of forests.
“People are losing their lives and livelihoods because of the disastrous effects of climate change. We must fight the causes, but also adapt to the consequences that are often most dramatic for the world’s poorest people,” World Bank Chief Executive Officer, Kristalina Georgieva, said in a statement. “This is why we at the World Bank commit to step up climate finance to $100 billion, half of which will go to build better adapted homes, schools and infrastructure, and invest in climate smart agriculture, sustainable water management and responsive social safety nets.”
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