Climate Finance Overview

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Context
Strategy
Results

The financing required for an orderly transition to a low carbon, climate resilient global economy can be counted in the trillions, not billions.

Over the next 15 years, the world will require about $90 trillion in new infrastructure – most of it in developing and middle-income countries. Making the right choices in favor of infrastructure that is climate resilient and locks in a low carbon development pathway is critical and urgent. Action now will avoid huge costs later.

The IEA estimates that limiting the rise in global temperature to below 2 Celsius by the end of the century will require an average of $3.5 trillion a year in energy sector investments until 2050.

Climate action is a vast opportunity for sustainable global development, with investment potential in the trillions of dollars and the ability to drive innovation and create green industries and new jobs.

The IFC estimates that the NDCs of 21 emerging market economies alone represent $23 trillion in investment opportunities.

According to IRENA, the global energy transition could contribute $19 trillion in economic gains by 2050.

The shift to green jobs is underway – 2015 saw the number of US jobs in solar energy overtake those in oil and natural gas extraction. In China, there are 35 percent more people working in clean energy than in oil and gas.

Countries are already decoupling growth from emissions. The IEA reported in March 2017 that global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions remained flat for a third straight year in 2016 even as the global economy grew.

To unlock these opportunities, we need a greener financial sector that systematically assesses climate risks and opportunities.

Greening the financial sector will require greater transparency about climate risks, factoring climate opportunities and risks into decision making, and expanding the use of approaches such as green bonds, risk management instruments (for example, guarantees), and blended finance.

Climate-smart finance is critical to fighting poverty and meeting development goals.

Without urgent action to reduce vulnerability, provide access to basic services, and build resilience, climate change impacts could push an additional 100 million people into poverty by 2030.

The impact of extreme natural disasters is equivalent to a $520 billion loss in annual consumption and forces some 26 million people into poverty each year.

Concessional climate finance is essential to catalyzing private sector climate investment and introducing new technologies, as well as to boosting resilience and stability.

The $8.3 billion Climate Investment Funds (CIF) have helped 72 developing countries pilot low emission and climate resilient development through country-led programs and investments.

Financing of $917 million from the CIF’s Clean Technology Fund (CTF) is driving global investments in concentrated solar power that are expected to contribute more than a fifth of current global capacity.

The World Bank Group (WBG) is more committed than ever to helping countries meet the climate challenge.

The WBG’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity cannot be achieved without tackling climate change.

More than 140 WBG client countries have submitted national plans for climate action – the Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs.

We are actively working with countries to help them deliver on and exceed their Paris ambitions, including through financing, technical assistance, and knowledge sharing.

Last Updated: Oct 04, 2017
Between FY2011 and FY2016, the WBG committed $63 billion dollars, an average of more than $10 billion a year, to more than 1,000 climate-related projects that help countries adapt to a changing climate and mitigate the impacts of climate change. In FY2016 alone, the WBG provided $10.4 billion in financing to 177 climate-related projects

In FY2016, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) made close to $2 billion in climate-related long-term investments from its own account and mobilized an additional $1.3 billion, for a total of $3.3 billion invested in climate-smart projects.

In partnership with the UN, the WBG has announced a new platform for climate action, Invest4Climate, designed to bring together national governments, financial institutions, investors, philanthropies, and multilateral banks to support transformational climate investments in developing countries.

The World Bank and IFC are among the world’s largest issuers of green bonds. As of September 2017, the World Bank had issued a total of 135 green bonds worth over $10.2 billion. As of September 2017, IFC had issued 77 green bonds worth $5.8 billion across 12 currencies

The WBG has committed to increasing climate financing to 28 percent of the Bank Group’s portfolio by 2020, in response to client demand. At current levels of co-financing, that would mean a potential $29 billion a year for climate projects by 2020. Meeting these targets is conditional on sustained aggregate WBG lending volumes, access to concessional finance, and client demand.

The WBG Climate Change Action Plan, adopted in April 2016, lays out concrete steps to meet that commitment. It includes ambitious targets to be met by 2020, including helping client countries add 30 gigawatts of renewable energy, put in place early warning systems for 100 million people, and develop climate-smart agriculture investment plans for at least 40 countries

The WBG is moving quickly to meet these targets. In 2016-17, the institution undertook renewable energy projects representing 10 gigawatts of generation capacity, which are expected to mobilize $6.5 billion in funding, and approved ten new operations that when in place will improve the climate resilience of over 50 million people.

Since 2005 IFC has invested $18.3 billion in long-term financing from its own account and mobilized another $11 billion through partnerships with investors for climate-related projects. Through these investments, IFC has developed expertise in key climate markets including solar, wind, energy storage, green buildings, energy efficiency, waste, and agriculture.

The WBG has demonstrated innovative ways to mobilize additional resources by working with partners. In special circumstances IFC co-invests donor funds on concessional terms alongside its own commercial funds in high-impact climate projects that would not happen otherwise due to market barriers or high risks. Since FY10 IFC has deployed over $442 million in donor funds to support 52 climate projects, leveraging $1.35 billion of the IFC’s own investment plus $4.1 billion from other financiers – a leverage ratio of almost 12 times.

Last Updated: Oct 04, 2017
In Morocco, the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) supported the phased construction of the Noor Concentrated Solar Power plant – the largest of its kind in the world. The first facility of the 3-phase Noor plant became operational in December 2015 and, by 2018, will be on track to generate over 500 megawatts of installed capacity, reduce carbon emissions by 760,000 tons per year, and supply power to 1.1 million Moroccan households.

IFC is helping the Philippines increase renewable energy capacity and decrease dependency on imported foreign fossil fuels. IFC’s Sustainable Energy Finance (SEF) program has developed into a full investment platform funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the CIF’s Clean Technology Fund. With this support, the Bank of the Philippine Islands has been increasing the availability of energy efficiency and renewable energy loans to develop alternative energy solutions throughout the islands.

IFC has committed $50 million to support the development of a low emission urban transportation system for the City of Buenos Aires. Financing supports construction of 3.5km of new efficient rapid transport bus lines, 88 new Ecobici bicycle sharing stations and 33km of segregated bicycle lanes.

IFC has committed $200 million to Kingenta, the largest fertilizer manufacturer in China, to help the company transform into an integrated agribusiness solutions provider. The project will support the construction of 300 crop production service centers throughout China, promoting precision agriculture and addressing declining soil quality and growing GHG emissions while directly helping create around 10,000 jobs.
In Jamaica, CIF funding is helping to improve climate data and information management. The ambition is to make it more accurate, timely, wider in coverage and easier to access and use by coastal communities, particularly farmers and fishermen. The funding contributes to early warning systems, improved equipment and observations – all of which lead to better forecasting

In March 2017, the World Bank approved $47 million to address deforestation in Mozambique, funded primarily through the Forest Investment Program. This project builds on the preparation work supported by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility since 2013. Some of the key expected results include reduced net greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation; increased number of hectares of natural resources protected and restored; improved forest governance; increased access to finance for agriculture and forest-based production participants; and increased number of rural households with access to land certificates.
The World Bank recently approved $18 million from the BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes (ISFL) to support a sustainable landscape program that spans Ethiopia’s Oromia region with a population of 30 million people. This is the first grant agreement for the ISFL, which is also designing programs in Colombia and Zambia. The ISFL program in Ethiopia supports actions to achieve the country’s low-carbon, green growth vision, including what is outlined in its Climate Resilient Green Economy strategy that emphasizes land use change, forest, and climate action. It provides investments in sustainable forestry, land use planning at the state and local level, and funding for forest-smart policies, technical training and a state-wide information campaign on how land is used.

In São Tomé and Príncipe, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) is supporting the government’s efforts to increase its adaptive capacity against threats like coastal erosion and sea level rise through activities such as high-resolution surface modeling for risk assessments, and enhancing capacity for resilience planning through grey and green infrastructure. These engagements are part of a large regional effort supported by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility through the $600 million West Africa Coastal Areas Management Program (WACA).

Since 2000, flood and drought events have cumulatively affected more than 13 million people across Sri Lanka. In an effort to reduce the adverse impacts of these events, GFDRR, the World Bank, and the government of Sri Lanka developed the “Comprehensive Approach to Climate Risk Management” program. The $110 million initiative is working to make transport and school infrastructure more resilient to future weather events, benefiting 745,000 people.
Launched in June 2016, Phase I of the Pacific Resilience Program—a series of projects to strengthen Pacific Island countries’ resilience to natural disasters and climate change— is funded through $32.29 million in grants and credits from IDA; the Global Environment Facility Special Climate Change Fund; the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience to the Pacific Community; GFDRR; and other partners. The program will benefit 135,000 people in Samoa and Tonga alone, of whom 40 percent are female. Phase II, focused on the Republic of the Marshall Islands, was approved by the Board in May 2017 and is funded by an IDA grant of US$ 23.6 million.

Last Updated: Oct 04, 2017