Kerry Calls On World Bank To Address Climate Change

(RTTNews) - Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., Wednesday called on the World Bank to do more to address global warming and climate change in the development projects it funds.

Kerry, speaking at the Bank's Washington, D.C., headquarters, said that the bank's approaches on dealing with climate change and energy in the developing world were inextricably linked.

"No citizen of the developing world should be held back by a lack of access to energy," Kerry said. "On the other hand, we cannot ignore the reality that our planet is currently hurtling toward irreversible and catastrophic climate change."

He added, "This problem did not begin in developing countries, but finding a solution will depend on addressing their growing contribution to it."

Kerry said that the Bank can and should play a larger role in developing workable solutions to achieve both goals.

He especially highlighted the need for the bank's early involvement in development projects to ensure that developing countries access cleaner energy sources.

"Several months ago, the Inter-American Development Bank chose to fund two subcritical coal fired plants in Brazil, a country among the richest in Latin America, and a world leader in its use of renewable and clean energy," Kerry said. "There is no excuse for this."

He added, "We need to be far more involved, far earlier, to ensure that alternatives are found for projects like this, and to avoid allocating limited funds toward projects that risk undermining our long-term development goals."

The Bank should also do more to help consider and plan for their energy development projects, Kerry said.

"The Bank must become more aggressive in presenting low-carbon alternatives that countries seldom consider on their own," he said. "That means helping middle-income countries to factor in the long-term costs of outdated technology, and convincing low-income countries that sometimes the easiest way to meet their energy needs isn't with a new plantâ??it's through energy savings from simple and cheap improvements in efficiency."

He added, "Serious clean energy projects often seem like impossibilities to governments consumed with simply maintaining basic services. We need to challenge the Bank to prove that these projects are not only possible, but desirable."

Kerry, who noted he is in favor of investing in carbon sequestration research to make coal a cleaner fuel source, said he nevertheless recognized that the bank would need to continue funding traditional energy projects.

"Africa today has the same amount of installed electricity as Spainâ??with twenty-three times more people," he said. "I recognize that there will be some exceptions for the poorest countries whose small fraction of global emissions will not make the crucial difference."

He added, "Increasingly, these must be the exceptions, and not the rule."

America and the World Bank both need to do more to expand existing investment funds aimed at addressing climate change, Kerry said, adding that some things that may be more expensive today would avoid incurring much higher costs in the future.

"Reducing energy poverty and combating climate change cannot be mutually exclusive challenges," he said. "We won't solve climate change unless we also seriously tackle energy poverty, and we haven't really solved energy poverty if we ravage our planet in the process."

He added, "If America and the World Bank act together, we have an opportunity for this institution to define a path toward clean energy and energy access for all."

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