For Immediate Release
November 19, 2012
Contact:
Niranjali Amerasinghe, 202-288-2204
Washington, DC – A new report released today by the World Bank, “Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C World Must be Avoided,” delivers a clear-eyed assessment that continued inaction by the world’s governments is putting us on a trajectory to a world that is 4 degrees warmer, as well as a stark warning that the consequences will be catastrophic.
“The 4°C scenarios are devastating: the inundation of coastal cities; increasing risks for food production potentially leading to higher malnutrition rates; many dry regions becoming dryer, wet regions wetter; unprecedented heat waves in many regions, especially in the tropics; substantially exacerbated water scarcity in many regions; increased frequency of high-intensity tropical cyclones; and irreversible loss of biodiversity, including coral reef systems.”
In his introduction to the report, Bank President Jim Yong Kim declares his “hope that this report shocks us into action. Even for those of us already committed to fighting climate change, I hope it causes us to work with much more urgency.”
Carroll Muffett, President of the Center for International Environmental Law issued the following statement on the report’s release:
Turn Down the Heat underscores the urgency of immediate action to reverse the growth in global greenhouse gas emissions if humankind is to have any hope of avoiding the most devastating impacts of climate change. The Bank’s report throws a stark light on the catastrophic trajectory we’re currently on, and serves as yet another in a long line of wake up calls for governments to begin urgently reducing greenhouse emissions. It is a clarion call for an urgent and dramatic paradigm shift in how we produce and use energy. President Kim hopes this report will shock the world into action, and we share that hope.
The question is: will the report shock the Bank itself into action? Will the Bank hear its own urgent message? Or will it continue investing in fossil fuels in a way that undercuts that sense of urgency and locks more emerging economies into emission-intensive development pathways? These questions take on a particular relevance given the Bank’s recognition that the worst impacts of climate change will be felt among the world poorest and most marginalized peoples—the very populations the Bank was created to benefit.
The true test of whether the Bank is ready to step up to the challenge is whether it continues to fund fossil fuel projects like the proposed coal-fired power plant in Kosovo. Will the Bank seize the Kosovo project as an opportunity to model a new approach to development? Or will it sound a clarion call the world should heed, then promptly ignore the call itself?
In a factsheet released with the report, the World Bank highlights steps it is already taking in response to the climate threat. These steps are welcome and necessary; but, as Turn Down the Heat demonstrates, they are far from sufficient. Unfortunately, the report does not propose the paradigm-shifting initiatives and policy changes that its findings demand. The Bank should make those changes now, beginning with a simple, clear and unambiguous commitment to end its own investment in dirty fuels.
About CIEL
Founded in 1989, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), www.ciel.org, uses the power of law to protect the environment, promote human rights and ensure a just and sustainable society. With offices in Washington, DC and Geneva, CIEL’s staff of international attorneys and experts work in the areas of human rights and the environment, climate change, law and communities, chemicals, trade and the environment, international environmental governance, biodiversity and international financial institutions by providing legal counsel and advocacy, policy research and capacity building.