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A Climate Smart Future
By World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick
The world’s poor will bear the brunt of the impact of global
climate change. As the planet warms, rainfall patterns shift,
and extreme events such as droughts, floods, and forest fires
become more frequent. Millions in densely populated coastal
areas and in island nations will lose their homes as the sea
level rises. In Africa, Asia, and elsewhere, poor people face
prospects of tragic crop failures, reduced agricultural
productivity, and increasing hunger, malnutrition, and disease.
It will become even harder to attain the Millennium Development
Goals – and ensure a safe and sustainable future beyond 2015.
For the people of the developing world – even as they strive to
overcome poverty and advance economic growth – climate change
threatens to deepen vulnerabilities, erode hard-won gains, and
seriously undermine prospects for development. At the same time,
they fear limits on their critical call to grow their economies,
expand opportunity, and develop energy or new rules that might
stifle their many needs, from infrastructure to entrepreneurism.
Climate change is one of the most complex challenges of our
young century. No country is immune. Alone, no country can take
on the interconnected challenges posed by climate change, which
include controversial political decisions, daunting
technological change, and far-reaching global consequences. A
“climate-smart” world is possible in our time. Yet, as the World
Bank Group’s new World Development Report argues, effecting such
a transformation requires us to act now, act together, and act
differently.
We must act now, because what we do today determines both the
climate of tomorrow and the choices that shape our future.
Today, we are emitting greenhouse gases that trap heat in the
atmosphere for decades or even centuries. We are building power
plants, reservoirs, houses, transport systems, and cities that
are likely to last fifty years or more. The innovative
technologies and crop varieties that we pilot today can shape
energy and food sources to meet the needs of 3 billion more
people by 2050.
We must act together, because climate change is a crisis of the
commons. Climate change cannot be solved without countries
cooperating on a global scale to improve energy efficiencies,
develop and deploy clean technologies, and expand natural
“sinks” to grow green by absorbing gasses. We need to protect
human life and ecological resources. Developed countries have
produced most of the emissions of the past, and have high per
capita emissions. These countries should lead the way by
signficantly reducing their carbon footprints and stimulating
research into green alternatives. Yet most of the world’s future
emissions will be generated in the developing world. These
countries will need adequate funds and technology transfer so
they can pursue lower carbon paths – without jeopardizing their
development prospects.
We must act differently, because we cannot plan for the future
based on the climate of the past. Tomorrow’s climate needs will
require us to build infrastructure that can withstand new
conditions and support greater numbers of people; use limited
land and water resources to supply sufficient food and biomass
for fuel while preserving ecosystems; and reconfigure the
world’s energy systems. This will require adaptation measures
that are based on new information about changing patterns of
temperature, precipitation, and species. Changes of this
magnitude will require substantial additional finance for
adaptation and mitigation, and for strategically intensified
research to scale up promising approaches and explore bold new
ideas.
At this point, the diverse countries of the world have not
sufficiently curbed emissions or financed developing countries.
We need a new momentum. The current global economic turmoil must
not hold us back – rather, it presents an opportunity to think
anew. ‘Green’ stimulus funds in many countries may jumpstart the
innovation needed to address climate change problems. It is
crucial that we reach a climate agreement in December in
Copenhagen that integrates development needs with climate
actions.
As a multilateral institution whose mission is inclusive and
sustainable development, the World Bank Group has a
responsibility to try to explain some of the interconnected
challenges posed by climate change – challenges in development
economics, science, energy, ecology, technology, finance, and
effective international regimes and governance – and to build
cooperation among vastly different states, the private sector,
and civil society to achieve common goods.
The World Bank Group has developed several financing initiatives
to help countries cope with climate change, including our carbon
funds and facilities, which continue to grow as financing for
energy efficiency and new renewable energy increases
substantially. We are trying to develop practical experience
about how developing countries can benefit from and support a
climate change regime – ranging from workable mechanisms for
forestation and avoided deforestation through carbon trading
systems, to lower carbon growth models and initiatives that
combine adaptation and mitigation. In these ways, we can support
the UNFCCC process and the countries devising new international
incentives and disincentives.
Much more is needed. We need action on climate issues before it
is too late. If we act now, act together, and act differently,
there are real opportunities to shape our climate future for a
safe, inclusive, and sustainable globalization.
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