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climate finance

Maximizing finance for climate action

Hartwig Schafer's picture
Also available in: Français 
Photo: World Bank / Simone D. McCourtie


Imagine a world where communities are better prepared to handle the threats that climate change poses to our homes, lives, and health. In this future world, there will be greater resilience built into infrastructure – including our roads, our cities, and towns. Imagine a world where all communities have access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy, waste management services, transport systems and sustainable forests and agricultural practices. Our societies will have smart and scalable solutions built into every sector of our economies.

Strong measures: getting fiscal on climate change

Weijen Leow's picture
Opening plenary of the Africa Carbon Forum



Albert Einstein once said: “The only source of knowledge is experience.” For years I have wondered about this. Surely you can understand something without actually having done it. After all, mankind’s understanding of the vast universe is greater than what can be directly experienced, and some of it is derived from theoretical reasoning. I was on my way to the 2018 Africa Carbon Forum to share fiscal policy lessons under the CAPE program and the debate was still raging in my head when I arrived at the UN campus in Nairobi Kenya.

Finance ministers should step up efforts for climate action

Petteri Orpo's picture
Photo: Mariano Mantel/Flickr

By Petteri Orpo, Minister for Finance, Finland 

Climate change already has many negative impacts with wide-ranging effects. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), global warming is significantly slowing economic growth in African countries while the population is growing rapidly. Climate change increases poverty and conflicts, as well as migration pressure.

It’s time to act. In terms of scale, the solution to the climate crisis is an exceptional challenge in the history of humankind. Emissions must be reduced quickly in all sectors of the economy.

Scaling up climate investments will require innovation in five key areas

Alzbeta Klein's picture


Just ask the investors: businesses in emerging markets can no longer afford to ignore the risks posed by the changing climate to their bottom lines. Ranging from increasingly frequent and severe weather events to new regulations and changing consumer preferences, climate change is fundamentally transforming the way we do business. Increasingly, companies and their investors are seeking opportunities to transition to and invest in climate-smart portfolios.

Reaffirming our commitment to carbon pricing and climate action

Catherine McKenna's picture
Second Annual Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition High-Level Assembly. Photo: World Bank


When the world united around the historic Paris climate agreement, in 2015, the message was clear: It’s unfair to pass the burden of climate change to future generations.

We now need to put words into action. This week, leaders from 20 of the largest economies are meeting in Hamburg to find solutions to global challenges. Climate change will be front and center.

As the co-chairs of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC), we want to accelerate climate action and reaffirm our commitment to carbon pricing. The discussions in Germany are a great opportunity to keep the momentum going.
 
Launched during the Paris climate talks, the CPLC now consists of 30 governments and over 140 businesses, all fighting for a common cause: to advocate for the pricing of carbon emissions across the world. We are calling for bold leadership from everyone – governments, companies, academia and civil society. The CPLC provides a forum for these groups to show collaborative leadership on carbon pricing.

A new front in the climate fight: innovative finance

Miria Pigato's picture
 Innovate4Climate Finance & Markets Week. Photo: World Bank / Simone D. McCourtie


What does public debt have to do with combatting climate change?
 
A few years ago, this would have seemed a strange question, as debt management and climate policy have traditionally been regarded as unrelated fields. But at a workshop at the annual Debt Management Forum in Vienna on May 22, 2017, debt managers from 50 developing countries discussed the role of emerging debt instruments such as green bonds and blue bonds, in raising capital for climate-friendly projects that range from reforestation to renewable energy.

While green and blue bonds resemble more traditional debt instruments in terms of structure and returns, they represent a novel approach to climate finance. Created just ten years ago, the total value of green bonds has grown at a spectacular pace, reaching US$82.6 billion in 2016. By the end of 2017, the total value of green bonds will likely exceed US$100 billion.

2016: A unique opportunity to get it right on forests and climate change

Ellysar Baroudy's picture
Moniz Phu Khao Khouay, Vientiane Province
Forest monitoring efforts in Phu Khao Khouay, Vientiane Province, Laos PDR. Photo credit: Hannah McDonald

If ever there was a year to make significant progress on forest conservation and climate change, it was 2016. Coming on the heels of the historic COP21 Paris Agreement, 2016 was a year to demonstrate the commitment the World Bank Group has to support countries as they take forward their nationally determined contributions to address our global climate change challenge. It’s gratifying to look back on 2016 and feel that we contributed to harnessing this momentum and sense of urgency; especially in showing how sustainable land use, including sustainable forest management, is critical to achieving the ambitious targets set out in the Paris Agreement.

New climate finance model in Morocco rewards low-carbon policies

Venkata Ramana Putti's picture
Koza1983


Morocco, the host of COP22 happening this week and next in Marrakech, is an example of a country that is working closely with the World Bank and other organizations to shift its economy onto a low carbon development path.

It just submitted its official climate plan, or nationally determined contribution, NDC, where it pledges a 42% reduction below business-as-usual emissions by 2030. This is 10 percentage points more ambitious than it previously laid out, ahead of Paris, and we see the plan affecting a growing number of sectors in the economy. Morocco plans a $13 billion expansion of wind, solar and hydroelectric power generation capacity and associated infrastructure that should see the country get 42% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, ramping up to 52% by 2030.

As the Paris Agreement becomes reality: How to transform economies through carbon pricing

Laura Tuck's picture


The remarkable pace at which nations of the world have ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change gives us all hope. It signals the world is ready to take the actions we need to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. We know, however, that delivering on Paris comes with a high price tag, and that we need to help countries not just transition toward renewable energy but unlock the finance needed to get there.

Amid the enormous challenge ahead, I want to emphasize the transformative economic opportunity that putting a price on carbon pollution presents.

Latin America and the Caribbean: seizing a trillion dollar opportunity in climate investments

Christian Grossmann's picture
Alessandra Bazan Testino / IFC
Green-bond supported wind farm in Penonome, Panama. Photo credit: Alessandra Bazan Testino / IFC 


First published by Capital Finance International.

Soon the world will celebrate the one-year anniversary of the historic climate agreement signed in Paris in December 2015. The agreement will be implemented through country-led greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction commitments known as their intended Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which to date have been submitted by 189 countries covering 95 percent of global GHG emissions. 
 
Apart from signaling concrete commitments, these reduction targets also offer a clear signpost of the investment direction countries need to follow as the global economy steers towards a low-carbon, climate-resilient pathway. Estimates point to between $57 trillion and $93 trillion in new low-carbon, climate resilient infrastructure investment by 2030.[1] How developing countries evaluate and respond to their infrastructure needs will greatly determine their ability to meet GHG reduction commitments.

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