31 January 2015: During January 2015, the Adaptation Fund, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and the World Bank reported on new funding and projects, and on finance-related tools and capacity-building activities. ADB, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank published articles, studies and other material on, inter alia: climate proofing of transport infrastructure; vulnerability and resilience in cities; financial instruments; and carbon pricing and offsets.
On funding news, the Adaptation Fund reported it had received a contribution of €1 million (US$1.2 million) from the Government of Flanders, Belgium, originally pledged in 2013, which, together with a recent contribution of €50 million (US$62.3 million) from the Government of Germany, would enable the Fund to clear its “pipeline” of pending project proposals from multilateral implementing entities (MIEs), containing four adaptation projects in Ghana, Mali, Nepal and Indonesia in the areas of water sector resilience, and food security and agriculture, among others. The contributions also raised the amount of funds available for projects by national and regional implementing entities (NIEs and RIEs) to US$143 million. [Adaptation Fund Press Release]
The Government of Bangladesh and the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessional lending arm, signed a US$375 million financing agreement for the Multipurpose Disaster Shelter Project, which will see the construction of 522 new shelters and the improvement of 450 existing ones, as well as building of related infrastructure, benefiting 14 million people living in nine coastal districts of Bangladesh. [World Bank Press Release] [World Bank Story]
ADB announced it is preparing a US$30 million project in Tajikistan, which will seek to increase farmers’ incomes through improving water resource management and strengthening climate resilience in the Chubek irrigation area. [ADB Press Release]
On tools, the World Bank’s Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) launched the Index Insurance Forum, a web-based platform focusing on information sharing on innovative insurance solutions, which is intended for index insurance practitioners globally. According to the Bank, index insurance is becoming a “reliable and innovative [solution] for managing financial losses arising from climate factors and natural disasters, particularly within agriculture.” [World Bank Press Release] [Index Insurance Forum website]
CIF reported on the participation of representatives from seven of the Funds’ Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) countries at the Fourth Annual International Conference on Climate Services (ICCS4), held in December 2014 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Ahead of the conference, the representatives met to discuss ways to enhance the uptake of climate services in PPCR countries, concluding on: the need for specific prediction and monitoring applications, and early warning systems; as well as the importance of sustaining information and service systems beyond the PPCR project lifecycle. [CIF Voices Blog on ICCS4] [CIF Voices Blog on PPCR Meeting]
On publications, ADB released a report titled ‘Climate Proofing ADB Investment in the Transport Sector: Initial Experience,’ which reviews and documents experiences gained from the Bank’s transport investments over the past two years. A video on a US$70 million project to climate proof roads and transport infrastructure in Cambodia presents a practical example of ADB’s work in this area. [ADB Publication] [ADB Video]
On the theme of cities, in an opinion editorial, ADB’s President Takehiko Nakao outlines key measures for tackling the climate change vulnerability of Asian cities: providing safe and effective water, sanitation and waste disposal services; increasing deployment of clean energy and improving energy efficiency; expanding public transport systems; improving disaster risk management; and exploring and expanding existing and new sources of funding. [ADB Article]
An article by EBRD, in turn, calls for climate scientists, architects and authorities to work together to help cities in vulnerable emerging economies adapt to the challenges of climate change, and highlights the Bank’s work in this area in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean regions. [EBRD Article]
On financial instruments, in an article on the power of microfinance, IDB presents the case of EcoMicro, a programme aimed at supporting Latin American and Caribbean microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the development of green finance products, which will provide a total of US$7 million in grants to 12 MFIs in the region. [IDB Article]
Two articles by the World Bank: explain how green bonds are becoming an increasingly important climate finance source; and identify trends for green bonds in 2015, including new types of issuers, indices and changing investor expectations. [World Bank Article on Green Bond Market Growth] [World Bank Article on Green Bonds Trends]
The World Bank also released studies on major companies’ experiences on preparing for, and operating under, carbon pricing policies, and on the similarities and differences between carbon offset programmes globally. Furthermore, the Bank published the third report of the ‘Turn Down the Heat’ series, which focuses on the risks of climate change to development in Latin America and the Caribbean. [World Bank Publication on Carbon Pricing] [World Bank Publication on Carbon Offsets] [World Bank Publication on Latin America and the Caribbean]
On awareness raising, as part of its school-centered educational initiative ‘Rise Up Against Climate Change’ (‘Súbete’), IDB launched a series of educational booklets, in English and Spanish, on topics, including ‘What is Climate Change?’ [IDB Publication]
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