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Photos: World Bank Group |
Climate impacts did not stop and the impacts on human wellbeing were increasingly visible.
Despite a brief dip in emissions because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of this drop will be negligible on limiting dangerous climate change unless countries prioritize green recoveries.
A greener, safer, and more inclusive recovery can not only help countries meet short term needs – jobs, economic growth – but also help them with other vital objectives, including decarbonization and resilience.
Even with COVID-19 lending, the World Bank Group surpassed its climate finance target for FY20, allocating nearly $21.4 billion to climate-related investments.
Here is a snapshot of 10 efforts the Bank Group advanced in climate action in this unprecedented year.
1. Setting an Ambitious 35% Finance Target to Support Countries’ Climate
Action.
The Bank Group announced an ambitious target for 35% of its financing to have
climate co-benefits, on average, over the next five years. It replaces an
earlier target of reaching 28% by 2020, which was in place over the last 5
years. The World Bank – IBRD and IDA – will also seek to ensure that 50% of
this financing supports adaptation and resilience.
2. Reflecting on the Bank Group’s First Climate Change Action Plan.
2020 marked the end of the Bank Group’s First 5-year Climate Change
Action Plan. In total, over the duration of the Action Plan, the Bank
Group has delivered over $83 billion in climate finance.
Early lessons were also drawn from the experience of the past 5 years that are
fundamental to our ongoing efforts to help clients address climate change
while also helping countries recover sustainably from the pandemic.
Key among this is that climate change considerations are integrated across the
majority of Bank Group transactions, technical assistance and, importantly,
investments, including in sectors, such as health and governance, that until
recently had not prioritized climate actions.
3. Drafting a Sustainability Checklist to Help Policymakers Shape a Green
Recovery.
The choices that governments make to restart their economic engine, including
the long-term social, economic, and environmental co-benefits they seek to
achieve through their stimulus investments, will be extraordinarily
consequential in ensuring that they can build back stronger and better.
We also suggested that NDCs, national development strategies, and master plans or
national adaptation plans deserve considerable attention in stimulus
discussions. They often provide a window into the government’s vision for
areas of future economic growth and technology transformation, both of which
have clear linkages with job creation.
4. Planning How the Bank Can Support Countries Meet Long-Term Goals of
Decarbonization
How can the World Bank help countries plan for and achieve long-term
decarbonization through country programs, technical assistance, lending, and
knowledge products?
Doing so requires the Bank to not only look 3–5 years ahead, roughly
equivalent to typical election cycles, but look decades ahead, and then work
with our clients to determine the near- and mid-term implications. It means
supporting the implementation of economy-wide strategies as well as
cross-sectoral initiatives, and not only focusing on single-sector
initiatives, such as individual energy or transportation projects.
Coinciding with a need for a major, global economic recovery – triggered by
the pandemic – this ‘whole of economy' approach to deliver better growth and a
better climate could provide the sustainable and resilient foundation for
countries as they build – or rebuild – their economies.
5. Developing 6 Universal Principles to Help Policymakers Plan for
Adaptation (along with 26 actions, 12 toolboxes and 111 indicators)
Effective action on resilience and climate change adaptation can be a
complex task—requiring coordinated efforts from the highest levels of
government to individual households and firms.
The Adaptation Principles offered a guide to effective climate change adaptation, containing
hands-on guidance to the design, implementation and monitoring of national
adaptation strategies.
It laid out six guiding principles:
- Ensuring resilient foundations through rapid and inclusive development;
- Facilitating the adaptation of firms and people;
- Adapting land use and protecting critical public assets and services;
- Increasing people’s capacity to cope with and recover from shocks;
- Anticipating and managing macroeconomic and fiscal risks; and
- Ensuring effective implementation through prioritization and continuous monitoring.
6. Unlocking over $450 million in Emission Reductions Payment
Agreements
The World Bank – as trustee of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility – has
now signed landmark Emission Reductions Payment Agreements with governments in
eight countries; Chile, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Ghana, Indonesia, Mozambique, Vietnam.
These will deliver over $450 million to governments, Indigenous Peoples, local
communities and other stakeholders for efforts to lower carbon emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation through 2025.
The total portfolio of programs is expected to result in 160 million tons
of emission reductions which is the equivalent of taking 34.5 million cars
off the road for a year.
7. Taking our Flagship Innovate4Climate Platform Virtual
The Bank’s flagship event on climate change action launched I4C Webinars for Climate Innovation and Blog Series to facilitate knowledge exchange on the latest findings, best
practices, and opportunities to accelerate climate action.
In total, the webinar series hosted 18 sessions with over 3500 participants,
covering topics from the role of carbon pricing in a sustainable recovery, and long-term strategies to transformative climate finance and innovation on climate adaptation.
In partnership with think tanks and private sector organizations, the blog
series published 15 blog posts discuss topics aligned with I4C’s four content
pillars - finance, markets, policy, and technology.
8. Engaging with Young Changemakers Through Connect4Climate
Youth will disproportionally face the consequences of climate change and
are demanding urgent global action.
Their stories, ideas and proposals can help shape a green and inclusive
recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. With this in mind, Connect4Climate
ran #Youth4ClimateLive, a series of virtual events to bring together a diverse group of youth at
the forefront of creative climate action for intergenerational and interactive
conversations with policy makers and climate experts.
Hosted monthly, the series focused on a wide variety of topics such as
driving a sustainable recovery, nature-based solutions, and protecting
the most vulnerable, with the goal of providing the global youth
community with a space to exchange their views and solutions and help
drive climate ambition in the lead-up to Pre-COP26 and COP26.
9. Identifying Seven Lessons from the Climate Investment Funds’ for How
Climate Finance Can Support COVID-19 Recoveries
The CIFs have an extensive track record in delivering transformative climate
finance which it brings to supporting countries as they limit the health,
economic, and social damages wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over one million people have lost their lives. Businesses are struggling to
survive the global recession that has ensued, and people are losing jobs and
livelihoods, leading to increased hunger and poverty. The CIFs extensive
implementation experience across a range of sectors offers important lessons
for how climate-related investments can support COVID-19 recoveries.
Building on this track record and lessons learned the CIFs has positioned
itself at the frontier of climate action through the development of new
investment programs in the areas of integration of renewable energy into power
systems, including energy storage, accelerating the coal transition,
climate-smart urbanization, natural capital, and decarbonized industry.
These will play a key role in supporting developing countries in ensuring a
green and resilient recovery.
10. Mainstreaming Climate in the Private Sector in Emerging Markets
In fiscal year 2020, the IFC committed $3.3 billion dollars for its own
account for climate related projects - almost a third of its total
investments.
IFC also mobilized $3.5 billion from other investors. IFC also helped develop
and strengthen climate finance standards, for example by leading the
Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Heads group to promote greater
consistency in climate reporting.
Other notable accomplishments include:
- Uzbekistan became the first country outside of Africa to join the Scaling Solar program, aiming to build a 100-megawatt utility scale solar plant and generate one of the lowest energy tariffs in the region;
- IFC worked to accelerate the adoption of sustainable public transport solutions – including electric buses and tramways - in cities such as Cali, Colombia; Lviv, Ukraine; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Casablanca, Morocco;
- By year end, IFC’s internationally-recognized green building certification system, EDGE, had certified over 16 million square meters of floor area around the globe; and
- IFC anchored green bond issuances in new markets, including investing $200 million in the Standard Bank of South Africa Limited's green bond, the largest of its kind in Africa, with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3.7 million tons over a five-year period.
Links
- World Bank - Climate Change
- World Bank Climate on Twitter
- Sustainable Development Series - Building a Balanced Future
- Adaptation Principles : A Guide for Designing Strategies for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience
- Webinars For Climate Innovation Series
- Innovate4Climate Blog Series
- Youth4climate Live Series
- 2020 Review: Earth Looked Like Hell From Space This Year
- (AU) 2020 Climate Year in Review: Legal Insights
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