The World Bank, traditionally a major funder of fossil fuel projects in developing countries, is abandoning coal except for “circumstances of extreme need,” President Jim Yong Kim said earlier this week.
“We are going to have to focus all of our energy to move toward renewable and cleaner forms of energy,” he said. “But on the other hand, we believe very strongly that the poorest countries have a right to energy and that we not ask these energy poor countries to wait.”
- Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
- A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
- The Weekender:The climate news you need.
Group Vice President and climate change envoy Rachel Kyte said the Bank would “ramp up our lending and the leveraging of our lending into all forms of renewable energy. That’s the strategy. It includes everything from all sizes of hydro through to wind, to solar, to concentrated solar, to geothermal.”
The policy shift followed a report the Bank commissioned from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Vidal writes. The research showed alarming drops in crop yields at 2°C warming, concluding that “climate change posed a substantial risk to development and cutting poverty.”
