World Bank Unveils $200 Billion Climate Action Investment For 2021 To 2025

The World Bank (WB) has unveiled a $200 billion climate investment for 2021-2025, which would amount to doubling of its current five-year funding, reports Indian Express.

The move, which WB claims to be coinciding with UN Climate Summit meeting of nearly 200 nations in Poland, signifies the importance of ramping up efforts to tackle climate change.

Developed countries have pledged $100 billion through private and public participation in developing countries by 2020 to fight the impact of climate change, up from $48.5 billion in 2016 and $56.7 billion last year.

The breakdown of the $200 billion would comprise "approximately $100 billion in direct finance from the World Bank", the bank said in a statement. One-third of the remaining funding would come from two World Bank Group agencies with the rest being private capital that will be "mobilised by the World Bank Group".

The bank's financing package amounts to "about $40 billion a year, but the direct (finance) is $27 billion per year on an average", John Roome, World Bank senior director for climate change, said. World Bank had committed $20.5 billion to climate action in this fiscal, compared with an annual average of $13.5 billion for the 2014-2018 period. The money now being earmarked amounted to "about 35 per cent" of the World Bank Group's total financing, he added.