With developing countries bearing the brunt of climate change, World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick will travel to Copenhagen to attend the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

"There cannot be an effective global response to climate change without the involvement of developing countries," said Zoellick. "At the same time, many developing countries will be hit first and hardest by climate change. I look forward to listening to stakeholders in Copenhagen and to discussing how the Bank Group can best leverage resources and harness technology to help developing countries and the world's poor to weather climate change and to develop low carbon growth strategies."

The Bank Group has joined other multilateral and bilateral partners in uniting to advance the climate change agenda under the leadership of the UN, including a recent call by Zoellick, along with other heads of multilateral development banks, for a comprehensive agreement to emerge in Copenhagen.

While in Copenhagen, Zoellick will meet with government leaders, national legislators, and others attending the conference to share experiences and lessons learned on effective climate action. He will also take part in an event to explore how the international community can provide greater support to REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Land Degradation) initiatives, and attend a seminar of world mayors and other urban leaders.

The Bank Group supports the UNFCCC process even though it does not participate in the negotiations. The Bank Group has worked closely on global climate change with donor and developing nations, using its financing depth and experience to help provide developing countries with some of the financial resources they need. This has taken place through regular Bank Group investments, as well as new or enlarged initiatives such as the Climate Investment Funds (US$6.3 billion pledged with US$3.2 billion in investment plans already endorsed to support more than US$30.5 billion in clean technology projects) and carbon finance funds (the World Bank manages more than US$2.5 billion in mitigation and adaptation investments across 11 funds and facilities financed by 16 governments and 66 private sector companies).

The Bank Group has also ramped up its creation and sharing of knowledge on the causes and impacts of climate change and the mitigation and adaptation activities required to fight it. Recent knowledge products, often done at the request of or in conjunction with national governments, include a major study, The Economics of Adaptation; low-carbon growth studies with a number of developing countries, and a major report on the human dimensions of climate change. The Bank Group's flagship World Development Report 2010 on development and climate change was also launched in September. It called for nations and individuals to "act now, act together, and act differently" on climate change and showed that developing countries can shift to lower-carbon paths while promoting development and reducing poverty, but this depends on financial and technical assistance from high-income countries.

According to UNFCCC, about 85 percent of the financing needed to tackle climate change must come from the private sector. The World Bank's private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) experience shows that climate-friendly investments in emerging markets are real opportunities for private companies, financiers and institutional investors. IFC invested more than US$1 billion in clean-energy projects in FY09. Since 1990, the World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), which provides political risk insurance, has provided guarantees totaling over US$2.5 billion for green infrastructure projects in all regions of the world.

(China Development Gateway, December 16, 2009)