5 September 2014: During the month of August 2014, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the World Bank reported on various climate finance projects. The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) announced a publication on the ADB’s climate finance projects in the Asia-Pacific, and the World Bank highlighted its climate and disaster risk screening policies.
On projects, ADB approved funding for two projects: US$15.6 million for rebuilding transport infrastructure damaged by recent flash floods in Solomon Islands; US$118 million for providing year-round access to markets and social services in nine poor rural provinces in Cambodia through a safer, cost-effective rural road network. The latter financing package includes a parallel loan of US$54 million. Climate change considerations are being incorporated into the project design, given that rural roads are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather and flooding. [ADB Press Release on Solomon Islands] [ADB Press Release on Cambodia]
ADB also reported on its first bus rapid transit (BRT) project in China. Located in the city of Lanzhou, the BRT system began operations in December 2012, and carried 290,000 passengers in the month of September in 2013. The Lanzhou sustainable urban transport project is also ADB’s first transport project to support an application for certification under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to offset a part of the operating costs. [ADB Press Release]
IDB announced the approval of projects in Costa Rica and Brazil: US$1.8 million in non-reimbursable technical cooperation jointly with the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) for a sustainable urban mobility programme in San José, Costa Rica; and a US$ 31.5 million grant for the recovery and protection of climate and biodiversity services in Brazil’s Southeast Atlantic Forest Corridor. [IDB San José Project Description] [IDB Brazil Project Description]
IDB also reported on the implementation of a small intra-regional technical cooperation project to provide Bolivia’s national agricultural insurance institute (INSA) with advice on agricultural insurance development and climate risk management. [IDB Bolivia Project Description]
Also on implementation, the World Bank reported on the status of a US$4.3 million project in Argentina, supported by the Adaptation Fund, to increase climate resilience and enhance sustainable land management (SLM) in the Southwest of the Buenos Aires Province. The project employs participatory planning processes to identify and pilot adaptation measures focusing on water, crops and livestock management. [World Bank Project Report]
The CIF Voices blog reported on the launch of a joint project by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply, its Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), the National Rural Learning Service (SENAR) and the World Bank that aims to boost productivity and reduce further degradation of the Cerrado Biome, which extends over one quarter of the Brazilian territory. Over the next three years, the ‘ABC Cerrado’ initiative will employ a US$10.6 million grant from the CIF Forest Investment Program (FIP) to develop low-emission technologies and build technical capacity, benefiting 12,000 medium-scale producers in nine Brazilian states. [CIF Voices Blog Post]
The SDG Knowledge Hub publishes monthly climate finance updates that focus on news and reports on projects and other finance-related developments by MDBs and key climate finance-related institutions. Past Climate Finance Updates can be found under the tag: Finance Update: Climate Change. Climate finance news and developments relating to renewable energy and energy efficiency are published in monthly Sustainable Energy Finance Updates, which can be found under the tag: Finance Update: Sustainable Energy