INTERVIEW: World Bank: Time to step up funding for climate adaptation

By Chris Cermak Dec 8, 2010, 10:26 GMT

   Cancun, Mexico - The world needs to begin shifting resources towards dealing with the effects of climate change if developing countries are to avoid the worst consequences of a warming planet, according to the World Bank's top climate official.

   Andrew Steer, the World Bank's special envoy for climate change, said governments have focused too much on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions blamed for causing climate change, and too little on recognizing the realities of global warming on the ground.

   In an interview with the German Press Agency dpa on Tuesday, Steer backed calls for environment ministers gathering for a UN summit in the Mexican city of Cancun to put more money into helping countries boost their climate defences.

   'Over the years, I think it has been understandable that more money was put in for mitigation, and that makes sense because we were trying to prevent the problem,' Steer said.

   'We now realize that we have a problem, and so those who argue that funding for adaptation needs to be increased are right. We share that view.'

   Steer said he believed developing countries were gearing up for a major transformation in the way they use energy and deal with climate change, but governments will need to raise about 100 billion dollars per year in funds if they hope to make the crucial shift.

   'The World Bank believes that we need financing at scale,' Steer said. 'The time is now to ramp up the scale of investments.'

   Governments in Cancun are discussing how to make good on pledges from the 2009 Copenhagen summit to raise aid to 100 billion dollars per year by 2020. Ministers could establish a new Green Fund to begin channeling that aid toward climate projects.

   The World Bank has so far been one of the chief global development institutions running climate funds that help poorer countries tackle warming and shift toward renewable energy technologies, but Steer said the projects have to move beyond their current small scale.

   'We don't need a whole lot of piloting,' Steer said. 'We need to get on the job and deliver results.'

   The overarching goal is to get countries to see climate-friendly investments as part of their normal economic development. Steer said it would be most effective if funds earmarked for tackling climate change were 'integrated into the overall development programme.'

   'We're really working with those countries ... to make their overall development path more climate resilient.'

   Steer would not say whether he was optimistic that ministers meeting in Cancun this week will make progress on delivering more financing to developing countries. But poorer nations had to send a message that they would plug on with their efforts regardless of the stalled international talks.

   'Out there, developing countries are not waiting for an agreement,' Steer said.

   'They're part of this new sort of industrial revolution,' he added. 'They want it because it's good for growth.'