Will the World Bank act boldly?

Unprecedented heatwaves, widespread food shortages, more intense cyclones and shifting rain patterns causing floods or droughts are just some of the future problems outlined in the World Bank’s latest climate report today.

Following its groundbreaking report that warned about a 4 degrees Celsius warmer world, the bank has now looked at what that warming would mean for South Asia, South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The picture is dramatic, as this infographic illustrates, with climate change threatening the future prosperity of these regions.

Four degrees may not sound like a lot, but it almost compares to the temperature difference between the last ice age and today – and happening during one person’s lifetime. No wonder the impacts would be dramatic!

For the regions in question, two degrees would already cause severe problems, which is why we must limit warming to less than two degrees. The World Bank says this is still feasible and it calls for bold action and countries to adopt aggressive targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

But what about the bank’s own actions?

The World Bank President, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, pledged today that the bank will do everything it can to prevent the bleak future from materialising. Kim pledged the bank will step up its climate work as it increasingly looks at its business through a “climate lens”.

Well, we’ve done that already, and here’s what we found: the World Bank is still fueling climate change, big time.

Despite efforts to increase its renewable energy lending, in the past five years the World Bank Group still financed fossil fuels by a total of US$18 billion – nearly half of its energy lending. Since 1994, the group has financed a total of 29 coal-fired power plants in Asia alone. 

But this financing understates the bank’s contribution to dirty coal development, as its loans are usually a small part of the total funding package.

The latest support includes two of the biggest dirty power plants: 4800MW Medupi in South Africa and 4000MW Tata Mundra in India – both of these plants will end up high on the list of the biggest CO2 sources on earth.

The Kosovo lignite power plant project in Europe will be the first real test for Kim’s climate pledges. The bank is planning to grant guarantees for a low-efficiency coal power plant that has CO2 emissions well exceeding the average of new power plants in China, and air pollution emissions up to twice as high as those allowed under either US or Chinese regulations.

The bank claims that building a new, dirty coal power plant is the only way to provide electricity to Kosovo, while even the bank’s own former renewable energy expert has shown that practical and affordable renewable energy and energy efficiency options are available and can be implemented in time.

We have been truly impressed by the efforts of Kim to bring climate change onto the political agenda again, warning about the severe consequences of the current path we’re on, but action speaks louder than words.

Together with about 60 development, faith, human rights, community, and environmental groups from more than 20 countries, Greenpeace expects the World Bank to lead by example. This means it must end support for all fossil fuel projects unless the projects are solely focused on directly increasing energy access for the poor. In most cases, including Kosovo’s, better solutions exist.

It is renewable energy and energy efficiency that truly deliver for the poor – not dirty fossil fuels that are causing our climate to change.

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