World Bank Doubling Aid to Poor Countries Adapting to Climate Change
Announcement comes as delegates from 200 countries meet in Poland to discuss climate change, implementation of Paris accord
The World Bank has announced it is doubling its funding to help poor nations adjust to global warming to $200 billion over five years. "If we don't reduce emissions and build adaption now, we'll have 100 million more people living in poverty by 2030," the bank's climate change chief John Roome told the French News Agency. "And we also know that the less we address this issue proactively in just three regions - Africa, South Asia, and Latin America - we'll have 133 million climate migrants, Roone cautioned." Helping poorer nations adapt to a warmer environment and the weather extremes that come with it include building sturdier homes, finding new sources of fresh water, and what the bank calls "climate smart agriculture." The bank's announcement comes as delegates from 200 countries started a two week-long climate change conference in Katowice, Poland. The threat posed by global warming "has never been worse," U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa said Sunday. The threat posed by global warming "has never been worse," U.N. climate chief Patricia Espinosa said at the start of climate talks in Poland. "This year is likely to be one of the four hottest years on record. Climate change impacts have never been worse. This reality is telling us that we need to much more," she said Sunday. Negotiators from nearly 200 nations are in the southern Polish city of Katowice for two weeks of talks on implementing the landmark 2015 Paris Accord. Signatories to that agreement pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions and limit the rise in global temperatures to less than two degrees Celsius by 2030. "Looking from the outside perspective, it's an impossible task," Poland's Deputy Environment Minister Michal Kurtyka told the Associated Press last week. "The United Nations secretary-general is counting on all of us to deliver. There is no 'Plan B'" The climate change talks got a boost when 19 of 20 G-20 nations meeting in Buenos Aires reaffirmed their commitment to fighting climate change. The United States was the only holdout. President Donald Trump has threatened to pull the U.S. out of the Paris agreement because of what he says is the economic damage the treaty's provisions would cause. Trump is a promoter of fossil fuels and nuclear power and has proposed renegotiating the Paris Accord - an idea many dismiss as impractical. Host country Poland is expected to propose what it calls a "just transition" for the oil, gas, and coal industries to ease the financial blow from the move away from such polluting sources of energy. Negotiators are also expected to put forth plans to help developing nations adapt to a warming climate.