Climate Change

Countries are working to grow their economies and lift people out of poverty while confronting droughts, storms, and floods. On the other hand, there is a fast-approaching demographic surge in emerging markets—presenting an opportunity for our future. But only if these young people have access to clean air and water, education, and health care while growing up, and then the chance of a job when they are ready.

This is why the World Bank Group is focused on doing development right: resilient, fiscally sound, efficient, and built to last: smart development. We are supporting our clients to achieve their smart development goals, which include meeting their own Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). This includes projects that are building resilience, or that are managing emissions responsibly.

Smart development builds communities’ resilience to climate change and helps companies operate more efficiently and competitively. For example, a well-constructed road that connects a pharmaceutical manufacturer to markets—and is built to withstand floods—represents an adaptation investment that protects assets and ensures long-term value. Similarly, building schools or skills centers with insulation and reflective roofs keeps learning uninterrupted during extreme temperatures. Supporting farmers with drought-resistant seeds and drip irrigation boosts yields and incomes while safeguarding against dry periods. Mitigation means smart development that manages emissions responsibly. That includes shifting freight from trucks to rail, transit buses from diesel to electric that get more people to work more affordably, and growing more rice with less water that also reduces methane emissions. 

Last Updated: Oct 09, 2025

Strategy

The World Bank Group is supporting our clients to achieve their smart development goals, which include meeting their own Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). This includes projects that are building resilience, or that are managing emissions responsibly.

Last year, 48% of WBG financing qualified as having climate co-benefits under the shared MDB methodology—exceeding our own expectations.  This includes projects that are building resilience, or that are managing emissions. Building resilience means we build roads that can withstand a flood, and schools with insulation and reflective roofs, so outside temperatures don’t impact learning inside. We help farmers source drought-resistant seeds, so a dry season doesn’t wipe out the harvest or income. Mitigation means smart development that manages emissions responsibly.

We are guided by our Climate Change Action Plan 2020-2026, which outlines our support to countries to accelerate their development ambitions in line with their own nationally determined contributions and long-term strategies.

Activities

The World Bank Group delivered $50.8 billion in development finance with climate co-benefits in fiscal year 2025—which covers July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. Within that, resilience made up 43% of the public sector portfolio—up from one-third just two years ago.

We have supported 81 countries to identify how to accelerate their development ambitions in line with their own nationally determined contributions and long-term strategies through Country Climate and Development Reports.

These CCDRs help countries identify how to accelerate their development ambitions in line with their own nationally determined contributions and long-term strategies. Countries are tapping into our development knowledge to gain expertise, especially in strengthening the enabling environment for private sector investment and supporting smart development in their local communities and local businesses.

In 2024, we partnered with other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to launch a common approach for measuring resilience outcomes in a more systematic way. This approach pivots from mostly measuring the volume of our finance with climate co-benefits, to also measuring results.  In addition to disclosing climate co-benefits (mitigation and adaptation) data for each project, the World Bank started disclosing sub-project level climate finance data, from April 1, 2025 and climate finance at the close of each project from July 1, 2025. 

Since 2008, we have issued approximately $19 billion equivalent through over 220 labeled (green, blue) bonds in 28 currencies. We have also engineered new instruments, whether issuing the Bank’s first sustainability linked loan to Uruguay to improve livestock productivity and decrease their footprint, or developing new instruments including outcome-based bonds or guarantees that have supported carbon markets.

We are working with over 30 countries in establishing domestic carbon pricing mechanisms and preparing for the next generation of international carbon markets. We are also helping countries to design and implement large scale programs that generate high integrity carbon credits in the forests and other sectors.

And we are supporting nature-based solutions to development challenges such as using soil stabilization to reduce erosion, and mangrove restoration to improve fisheries and protect coastal infrastructure from wave inundation. The World Bank currently has around $13 billion active investments in environment, natural resources, and the ocean.

As part of a blueprint for methane reduction, through the Global Methane Reduction Platform For Development (CH4D) platform we are supporting 35 country-led programs to deliver better rice production, livestock operations and waste management systems with methane reduction, enhanced environmental resilience and improved livelihoods.

We have significantly expanded our crisis toolkit in several ways: broadening the scope of our Climate Resilient Debt Clauses to now cover disasters such as droughts, floods, and pandemics, offering vulnerable countries much-needed financial flexibility during crises.

Last Updated: Oct 09, 2025

Adaptation examples:

• In Haiti, the World Bank helped 400,000 people access health facilities and markets, and connect businesses to supply chains, by rebuilding 475 kilometers of rural roads and eight critical bridges.
• In Indonesia, the World Bank is helping nearly 350,000 farmers by rehabilitating over 250,000 hectares of irrigation and drainage systems, raising incomes for more than 3 million people reliant on agriculture. In Vanuatu, 40 schools have been reconstructed to higher safety standards to give teachers and children a safer environment in areas where disasters are intensifying.
• The World Bank is supporting the design and construction of weather-resilient housing in Sindh Province of Pakistan, following the 2022 floods. Around 1,050,000 families have received funding for the construction of new weather-resistant homes. This effort has generated an estimated 450,000 direct jobs and an additional 650,000 jobs in the construction supply chain, enabling families to rebuild and remain in their communities.
• In partnership with CGIAR, the World Bank reached five million smallholder farmers across Africa with climate-smart agricultural technologies and services. In Mali, for example, 150,000 farmers increased their income by $364 per hectare thanks to a digital app called RiceAdvice, which contributed to the adoption of drought-tolerant rice varieties and other practices to manage water scarcity.

Mitigation examples:

• In Eastern and Southern Africa, the ASCENT Program will provide energy access to 100 million Africans across 20 countries over the next five years, helping countries achieve their national energy access goals through grid expansion and densification, strengthening utilities, regional power trade, and investments to scale up distributed renewable energy and clean cooking.
• The World Bank Group is investing in Bus Rapid Transit systems to reduce vehicle-related air pollution and improve commuting times for millions of workers, in a number of cities including Cairo, Egypt; Dakar, Senegal; Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; Douala, Cameroon; Kampala, Uganda; Kumasi, Ghana; Maputo, Mozambique; and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The World Bank is also supporting the use of small, affordable electric vehicles, such as electric bikes and three-wheel vehicles, to further reduce emissions.
• The World Bank is supporting nine countries, including densely populated cities in Egypt, Pakistan, and Türkiye, to improve waste management systems. This includes investing in improved at-source collection and sorting systems for organic waste, improved waste transportation, upgrading landfills with anaerobic digestors, and setting up waste treatment plants.
• We are supporting Egypt to reduce air pollution and boost resilience in the Greater Cairo Region, which is home to a quarter of the country’s population, through better solid waste systems that capture methane as a scalable model for other regions.
• The World Bank is supporting countries that produce the world’s rice, such as Viet Nam, to repurpose policies and invest in systems that reduce emissions and save water while improving crop yield. This includes developing better irrigation systems for rice paddies, promoting the use of seeds that use less water while improving yields, and providing training to farmers for dry seeding techniques.

Last Updated: Oct 09, 2025