The World Bank Group says it is proposing a new trust fund to help increase financial flow from the global community to projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
David Malpass, the World Bank President, said this at the Eighth Ministerial Meeting of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action at the ongoing International Monetary Fund/World Bank Annual Meetings 2022 holding in Washington DC.
Malpass said the bank was proposing SCALE, which stands for Scaling Climate Action by Lowering Emissions.
“Integrated within our climate change operations, this new umbrella trust fund will provide grant payments to developing countries for achieving verified emissions reductions.
“Governments could use the funding for just transition, low carbon development, or for blended finance to cover part of the interest payments of projects. ”
He said the bank was implementing its Climate Change Action Plan with clear, intense, and focused measures to help its client countries fully integrate climate and development.
Malpass said it would require diagnostics, impactful projects, the banks’ resources, and large-scale financing.
He said a principal goal of the bank’s action plan was to build the financing mechanisms to help the global community support global public goods such as climate action in developing countries.
“As you know, we are spending more than 35 per cent of our growing resources on climate-related efforts, of which half is for adaptation.
“Your subscriptions to the recent capital increases for IBRD and International Finance Corporation, plus your generous contributions to the International Development Association, are being leveraged into sustainable development.
“We are achieving development leveraging ratios that are by far the highest among Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and we are working with you and bond markets to leverage more in sustainable ways.”
He said investments in adaptation and mitigation were needed across the world.
“Our Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs) are also looking carefully at the level of investments needed.
“Our CCDRs also illustrate that the transition requires a shift in technologies, stimulating innovation and driving down cost curves.
“We welcome the recent announcement from the U.S. of a nearly one billion dollar loan to the Clean Technology Fund, which will help scale up low carbon technologies in developing countries.”
Malpass said the bank was also working to help countries build country platforms to engage with a wide range of development actors in an efficient and tangible way.
“We will be inviting countries to organise investor conferences to bring development partners and the private sector together around the policy and financing findings of the CCDRs.”
By Okeoghene Akubuike
