The World Bank on Monday announce $200 billion in climate action investment for 2021-25, doubling its current five-year funding, PTI reported.
Developed countries aim to lift 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 in 2017, according to latest OECD data.
World Bank said the breakdown of the $200 billion, which is equivalent to about 35 percent of the World Bank Group’s total financing, 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, told AFP.
The bank’s financing package amounts to about 40 billion a year, but the direct finance is 27 billion per year on average.
World Bank had committed $20.5 billion to climate action in the 2018 fiscal year, running from July 2017 to June this year, compared with an annual average of $13.5 billion for the 2014-2018 period.
“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.
The countries whose representatives are meeting at the UN climate summit which opened on Sunday in the Polish city of Katowice are seeking to make good on commitments made in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
The 2015 Paris climate 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.