Development banks step up in Lima: Boost funding to fight climate change
World
Development banks step up in Lima: Boost funding to fight climate change
The world’s top development banks pledged Friday to boost their funding to lessen climate change’s impact, aiming for the goal of $100 billion a year that rich countries have pledged to transfer to developing countries by 2020. The pledges were made as finance ministers met in Lima less than two months ahead of a climate conference in Paris considered pivotal if the brakes are to be put on global warming.
This is a positive outcome and I think we can say with some certainty that we will reach the $100 billion commitment [made at 2009 climate talks.]
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius
For the World Bank alone, that will mean boosting climate financing by a third, potentially making $29 billion a year in additional funding available by 2020. Pledging to essentially double their lending were the smaller Asian, European, African and European multilateral development banks. The African Development Bank said it would triple its climate financing to nearly $5 billion a year by 2020. The inaugural meeting in Lima also called on developed countries to boost by 50 percent the financing for adaptation, which includes everything from building sea walls to more heat-resistant highways to relocating low-lying communities where sea levels are rising.
