La Banque Mondiale s'engage dans la Lutte contre le Rechauffement Climatique

La semaine derniere, le comite executif de la Banque Mondiale approuvait un fond special pour le climat. Le montant? 5 milliards de dollars quand meme... Il faut dire que ca fait des mois qu'on travaille sur cette Strategie adoptee par la Banque recemment et que l'on s'applique a la decliner au niveau regional (Afrique, Asie, etc) puis au niveau des projets. Moi je travaille avec mes collegues sur un projet qui vise les interactions entre le climat et la gestion des terres en Afrique sub-saharienne. Tres interessant, d'autant plus que je suis arrivee au debut et que je devrais voir la fin d'ici deux ans.

Mais je vous laisse lire le message que nous avons recu (pour les anglophones seulement... )

World Bank Board Approves Climate Investment Funds

Targeting $5 billion over next three years to support developing countries

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2008

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors today
gave formal approval to the creation of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), a
pair of international investment instruments, designed to provide interim,
scaled-up funding to help developing countries in their efforts to mitigate
rises in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to climate change.

Two trust funds will be created under the Climate Investment Funds; total
investments, based on preliminary indications from donor countries, are targeted
to reach US$5 billion.

One of the funds, the Clean Technology Fund, will provide new, large-scale
financial resources to invest in projects and programs in developing countries
which contribute to the demonstration, deployment, and transfer of low-carbon
technologies.  The projects or programs must have a significant potential for
long-term greenhouse gas savings.

The second fund, the Strategic Climate Fund, will be broader and more flexible
in scope and will serve as an overarching fund for various programs to test
innovative approaches to climate change.  The first such program is aimed at
increasing climate resilience in developing countries.

The Bali Action Plan on Climate Change calls for the international community to
do more in providing financial resources and investments that support action on
mitigation, adaptation, and technology cooperation, said World Bank Group
President Robert B. Zoellick.  These Climate Investment Funds are part of the
World Bank Groups expanded response to the challenge of climate change.  They
are a key element in our six-point program, specifically to provide innovative
and concessional financing to facilitate both public and private sector
investments in low-carbon and adaptation projects.

We think the CIF will have a significant impact in generating even more
financing for climate action, said Zoellick, but also in demonstrating new
approaches to address the current and future effects of climate change.  These
approaches will range from agriculture to water management, from transport to
urban development, and from biodiversity to energy access.

The Climate Investment Funds were designed through inclusive and extensive
consultations in support of the Bali Action Plan over the past six months.
Consultations took place with potential donors and recipients, the United
Nations family, other multilateral development banks (MDBs), civil society
organizations, and the private sector.  At a final design meeting, held in
Potsdam, Germany, on May 21-22, 2008, representatives from some 40 developing
and industrialized countries agreed to create the CIF.

In designing the funds, participants have taken care to recognize the primacy of
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in global
climate negotiations, and to support those negotiations.  All funds and programs
under the CIF have a sunset clause in order not to prejudice on-going UNFCCC
deliberations regarding the future of the climate change regime.

With the Climate Investment Funds, said Katherine Sierra, World Bank Vice
President of Sustainable Development, we can start making progress today by
supporting innovative and pioneering initiatives, thus creating a new body of
experiences and knowledge that will inform the ongoing negotiations on the
future of the climate change regime.

The funds, to be disbursed as grants, highly concessional loans, and/or risk
mitigation instruments, will be administered through the multilateral
development banks and the World Bank Group for quick and flexible implementation
of country-led programs and investments.

Developing countries will have an equal voice in the governance structures of
the funds, and decisions on the use of funds will be made by consensus. An
annual Partnership Forum will be held to provide a venue for talks on the
strategic directions, results, and impacts of the CIF.  The Partnership Forum is
designed to be a broad-based meeting of stakeholders, including donor and
recipient countries, MDBs, the United Nations and its related agencies, GEF,
UNFCCC, the Adaptation Fund, bilateral development agencies, NGOs, private
sector entities, and scientific and technical experts.

As a result of the World Bank Board of Executive Directors? approval, it is
expected that the first Partnership Forum for the Climate Investment Funds will
take place in September, 2008. Approval of funding for initial projects or
programs is expected before the end of 2008.