A new deal for the 21st century

To counter the rise in temperatures and limit potentially catastrophic impacts, the required changes in the global energy system and other economic activities will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, according to the 2010 World Development Report and Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change. André Laude states in this video: “For adaptation and mitigation in developing markets alone, the annual commitments have to be above 100 billion U.S. dollars, but we fail year after year in meeting this target. So the question is: what do we do instead?”

At IFC, Laude is chief investment officer for the Global Financial Markets Department focusing on micro and small business finance worldwide. Laude would like to bring financial institutions into this broad alliance to counter climate change. IFC helps businesses fill financing and knowledge gaps in areas such as renewable energy, more efficient technologies and proven measures for emissions reduction. An example of a small scale approach is the “ground level work” IFC does in East Africa, where it works with financial institutions to promote the climate agenda, Laude explains. “We make climate projects eminently workable; we make them a good asset class for banks… We encourage banks by taking fifty percent of the portfolio risk, and we help the local entrepreneurs create bankable projects; besides taking part of the risk upon us, we teach the banks about some of the climate friendly technologies.” He calls this “true local citizenship”.

References

The interview was recorded during the Future of Banking Conference, November2012 in Amsterdam, organized by the Dutch development bank FMO.

This article may be reproduced according to our terms of use with attribution (and link, if online) to www.tias.edu. To be cited as: “A new deal for the21st Century” André Laude, www.tias.edu, January 30, 2013.

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