The World Bank Group has said that it will ramp up direct adaptation climate finance to reach $50 billion between 2021 and 2025. This is contained in the organisation’s “Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience”, which was launched on Tuesday, January 15, 2019.
The planed financing level, representing an average of $10 billion a year, is said to be more than double what was achieved during 2015-2018. The World Bank Group will also pilot new approaches to increasing private finance for adaptation and resilience.
“Our new plan will put climate resilience on an equal footing with our investment in a low carbon future for the first time. We do this because, simply put, the climate is changing so we must mitigate and adapt at the same time,” said World Bank Chief Executive Officer, Kristalina Georgieva. “We will ramp up our funding to help people build a more resilient future, especially the poorest and most vulnerable who are most affected.”
The increase in adaptation financing will support activities that include:
- Delivering higher quality forecasts, early warning systems and climate information services to better prepare 250 million people in at least 30 countries for climate risks;
- Supporting 100 river basins with climate-informed management plans and/or improved river basin management governance;
- Building more climate-responsive social protection systems; and
- Supporting efforts in at least 20 countries to respond early to, and recover faster from, climate and disaster shocks through additional financial protection instruments.
In addition to boosting finance, the Plan will also support countries to mainstream approaches to systematically manage climate risks at every phase of policy planning, investment design, and implementation.
“This Action Plan is a welcome step from the World Bank,” said Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations and co-chair of the Global Commission on Adaptation. “The world’s poorest and most climate vulnerable countries stand to benefit from its increased finance and support for longer term policy change.”
The Action Plan builds on the link between adaptation and development by promoting effective and early actions that also provide positive development outcomes. For example, investing in mangrove replanting may protect a local community against sea level rise and storm surges, while also creating new opportunities for eco-tourism and fisheries. Early and proactive adaptation and resilience-building actions are more cost-effective than addressing impacts after they occur.
The Action Plan also includes the development of a new rating system to create incentives for, and improve the tracking of, global progress on adaptation and resilience. The new system will be piloted by the World Bank in FY19-20 and rolled out to projects in relevant sectors by FY21.
The Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience forms part of the World Bank Group’s 2025 Targets to Step Up Climate Action which were launched in December 2018, during the UN’s COP24 in Poland.
The Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience will be implemented starting June 30, 2021 through July 1, 2025.
