World Bank calls for assurances on carbon finance
Martina Bossi, the World Bank’s carbon finance specialist, has urged negotiators at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) to ensure the future and expansion of carbon financing.
Daniel Nielsen
The World Bank now has 10 years of experience with carbon finance, which involves securing finance to support low carbon investments and ties in to the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation procedures.
At a press conference in the Bella Center yesterday, Bossi and her colleague Warren Evans, environment director at the World Bank, shared their experiences and insights from that decade of working with carbon markets for development and global greenhouse gas mitigation.
Bossi said it had been an ‘amazing journey’ going from no transactions in 2002 to US$7 billion in 2008.
She emphasised the high proportion of carbon financed projects the World Bank was involved with in developing countries and especially in Africa, where 20 percent of them were located.
The World Bank, Bossi said, aimed to raise awareness of carbon financing and improve the efficiency of the approval process.
There was also a strong desire to enhance predictability surrounding CO2 emission reduction targets.
“What happens after 2012?” Bossi asked, adding ‘What will be the demand for carbon credits?’
She answered them with the hope that COP15 would be a turning point, after which the demand for carbon credits would increase and the future of low carbon development projects secured.
