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DEVELOPING countries like the Philippines can earn
additional revenues and obtain clean technology from the
World Bank’s proposed Carbon Partnership Facility.
In a
statement, the World Bank said its Carbon Partnership
Facility will allow developing countries to earn money
and obtain environment-friendly technology in exchange
for greenhouse-gas-emission reductions sold to developed
countries.
The
facility is one of the measures being proposed by the
World Bank and the United Nations to counter the ill
effects of climate change on the world economy,
particularly on developing countries.
“Climate
change should not be the frosting on the cake of
development—it has got to be cooked into the recipe. We
need to focus particularly on the interests of
developing countries so that we can meet the challenge
of climate-change without slowing the growth that will
help overcome poverty,” World Bank group president
Robert Zoellick said.
The
World Bank said in a statement that it is also working
to fully integrate climate-change adaptation into
zero-interest loans and grants from the International
Development Association (IDA), whose main clients
include the world’s least-developed countries.
Zoellick
said the bank estimates that developing countries will
need around $100 billion worth of investments per year
over the next 25 years to meet their energy needs
through low-carbon means—far more than public-sector
resources can provide.
The bank
noted that while combatting climate change may be
costly, not acting on climate change has far more
expensive consequences.
The bank
cited a major
UK
government study last year by former World Bank chief
economist Nicholas Stern which estimated that the world
will end up losing 5 percent to 20 percent of gross
domestic product (GDP) per year if nothing is done to
slow climate change.
This is
against the estimated annual cost of stabilizing
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which would only
cost 1 percent of GDP by 2050.
“Climate
is not just an environmental issue, it’s a development
issue. Any agreement has to take into consideration the
need for developing countries to be able to grow, to
create jobs, as well as to deal with local and global
pollution,” World Bank Sustainable Development Network
vice president Kathy Sierra said.
“What
we’re hoping to do is position this issue as a
development issue of great importance to our clients, to
showcase the types of new innovations that can help find
solutions,” she added. |
