The World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC. Creative Commons: Deborah W. Campos
By Isiah Holmes / 04.09.2016
For decades, climate change choked in claustrophobic isolation as politicians ignored the warning signs. With ideological gridlock stalemating progress in Washington, the burden to take action rests on the international community. Increasingly volatile weather patterns highlight the urgent need for societies to adapt, a more than worthwhile investment for the World Bank. Its recent pledge to allocate billions towards climate change adaptation worldwide steels countries taking a united stand for humanity’s future.
The Washington-based entity announced a plan to augment worldwide renewable energy funding, Financial Express reports. World Bank’s initiative hopes to add 30 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy to earth’s supply, as well as develop adaptability technologies. According to Financial Express, $25 billion will be mobilized by 2020 for the effort, helping developing countries meet their COP-21 pledges.
Another goal looks at quadrupling funding for climate resilient transport, as well as integrate climate into urban planning. Augmented assistance to sustainable forests and fisheries are also prioritized. All of this, Financial Express reports, for a phenomenon threatening to put 100 million people into poverty within the next 15 years.
The international push to respond to climate change has also begun to unite rival countries under a single banner. According to Eurasia Review, American and Chinese research cooperation took a very interesting turn recently. Two US Forest Service “experimental forests” have been selected to take part in a US-China climate change initiative.
New Hampshire’s Santee Experimental Forest will partner with two Chinese counterparts– the Wangqing and Guangxi Province experimental forests. By combining efforts, researchers hope to accelerate development of adaptive methods in agriculture and other pressing matters. Experimental forests have existed on US soil since the early 20th century, one of the US forests involved once studied acid rain.
With the climate crisis beginning to increasingly hit home, the need to transcend dogma has never been more apparent. Development of not only adaptive, but sustainable technologies, may prove to be the difference between manageable disasters and Armageddon. Droughts in California, tropical storms towards the east, flooding in the south, and the death of oceanic ecosystems. The time is now, it’s literally do or die. World Bank has demonstrated its understanding of this fact, hopefully the trend will continue.