This week’s annual meetings of the World Bank could have important implications for the climate crisis and could help shift the trajectory of global warming. Multilateral development banks can make or break the transition to renewable energy, and governments are their shareholders. It’s time for those governments to step up and make sure the banks are prepared to advance the process.
To stop climate chaos from causing enormous human suffering and decimating the global economy, we must bend the emissions curve down, now. There is no mystery about what needs to happen next. The share of renewables in the global energy mix must increase exponentially, and the use of fossil fuels must decrease to zero in the coming decades. Emissions must stop rising immediately and fall by 45% in the next eight years. Developing countries need to meet rising demand for cheap energy with renewables and adapt to the catastrophic impact of the climate crisis.
In all this, multilateral development banks, including the World Bank, are essential drivers and sources of finance. The global economy doesn’t lack liquidity, but it’s either sitting on the sidelines or invested in fossil fuels and carbon pollution. Multilateral development banks can help shift that liquidity where it’s needed.
