World Bank steps up climate change battle

Doubles funds to $200b from 2021-25 to help countries, people adapt to a higher temperature environment

The World Bank will give equal weight to curbing emissions and helping poor countries deal with the “disastrous effects” of a warming world as it steps up investments to tackle climate change in the first half of the 2020s.

The bank and its two sister organisations plan to double their investments in climate action to about $200 billion (Dh735 billion) from 202125, with a boost in support for efforts to adapt to higher temperatures, wilder weather and rising seas.

The latest figures on climate funding for developing countries show barely a quarter has been going to adaptation, with the bulk backing adoption of clean energy and more efficient energy use, aimed at cutting planetwarming emissions.

“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, as leaders flagged rising needs at UN climate talks in Poland.

Of the $100 billion the World Bank plans to make available in the five years from mid2020, half would go to adaptation measures. Those include building more robust homes, schools and infrastructure,

We must fight the causes, but also adapt to the consequences that are often most dramatic for the world’s poorest people.” Kristalina Georgieva | World Bank CEO

preparing farmers for climate shifts, managing water wisely and protecting people’s incomes through social safety nets, Georgieva added.

The World Bank said the money would also improve weather forecasts, and provide early warning and climate information services for 250 million people in 30 developing countries.

“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,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement.

From 2014-18, the World Bank spent nearly $21 billion on adaptation, which accounted for just over 40 per cent of the climate benefits generated by the institution’s funding overall.

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the bank’s pledge to use half its climate finance to find solutions to deal with changing weather patterns was “important”.