The US Executive Director at the World Bank Whitney Debevoise has written a letter to request that the World Bank stop funding coal-fired plants in developing countries. Debevoise said that multilateral development banks like the World Bank have the responsibility of building a financing framework ensuring mitigation of carbon emissions to strengthen developing countries’ economies against climate change.
However, cutting off all financing tools in order to cut back carbon emissions and attempt to force renewable energy will only continue to keep countries like those in Africa behind. The best solution is to diversify the energy mix and produce a gradual ease off of fossil fuel dependencies. Developing countries are looking to expand their coal-fired generation in order to boost economic growth while looking to mitigate carbon emissions by gaining access to clean technology through an international climate deal.
Yet a multilateral agreement will not happen anytime in the near future, especially if Copenhagen was an indicator.
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