World Bank Commits 28% to Combat Climate Change

On Thursday, April 8, the World Bank announced that in a "fundamental shift" in its role in reducing global poverty, it will now allocate 28% of its investments to combat climate change worldwide. This international institution, described by the British newspaper The Guardian as the "largest provider of public capital in developing countries," stated that this percentage of its investments will be directly directed towards climate and weather change projects. The World Bank also commits to considering global warming in all future projects. At the global climate conference held in December 2015 in Paris, one of the existing issues was how to assist developing countries in combating climate change. At this conference, the World Bank and other international development banks from around the world were tasked with providing financial assistance to poorer countries. Last Thursday, the World Bank announced that its 28% commitment for investment in climate projects was made with this goal in mind. To achieve this goal, the World Bank and its affiliated entities will inject at least $16 billion annually into climate change projects, including renewable energy projects. The World Bank group also intends to attract an additional $13 billion from the private sector over the next four years. This budget is expected to reach about $29 billion per year by 2020, which is nearly one-third of the $100 billion that wealthy countries have promised to provide annually to poorer countries for climate change mitigation. Earlier, in November 2015, the World Bank warned that if proper policies to combat climate change and rising sea levels are not adopted, an additional 100 million people will be added to the world's poor population by 2030 due to global warming. The World Bank stated that ending poverty, which is one of the 17 new goals of the United Nations, will not be feasible without addressing global warming and its consequences for the world's poor.