HS Alliance
By Simon Jessop
LONDON (Reuters) – Global multilateral development banks must “increase their ambition” in terms of financing climate-related projects, UN climate envoy Mark Carney said on Tuesday.
Speaking in a podcast with Rob Cox, editor-in-chief of Reuters BreakingViews, Carney said groups such as the World Bank and other development finance institutions should focus on supporting investments of up to $ 100 billion. dollars per year.
“In climate finance, if something isn’t going to hit 100 billion a year in the medium term, it’s not interesting, it’s a niche; that’s how big the numbers are,” Carney said.
“So I think the MDBs have to think in these terms, design scalable programs, capable of reaching these levels.”
Ahead of the next round of global climate talks in Glasgow in November, Carney said the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), a group of financial institutions working to reduce emissions, would unveil a plan to aid.
“(We) will make explicit proposals on this and I hope we have success with it.”
On Monday, GFANZ issued a separate call to action for governments to adopt a series of policy changes that the group said would help accelerate the global transition to a low-carbon economy.
The comments follow criticism from some quarters that development finance institutions have not done enough to help encourage more private sector capital to be deployed in the fight against climate change, particularly in countries with poor climate. poorer.
Earlier this year, BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink called for reform of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to provide more first-loss capital to help lower the cost of funding private investors.
In a recent interview for the Reuters Impact conference, however, the managing director of the International Finance Corporation, Makhtar Diop, said that MDBs “push as hard as they can” and are fit for purpose.
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)