EVENTS
Sessions focused on how to achieve alignment on the climate targets of the Paris Agreement
OFQ : How do we help developing countries come up to speed with the latest best practices in data collection and analysis? SS: Reliable data points are indeed lacking, particularly in many developing countries, so we should be helping governments to develop robust systems for data collection that can accurately measure impacts on the ground. We are fortunate to have more technology, tools, remote sensing and satellite data available to demonstrate the vulnerability of nature and the loss of biodiversity. Having said that, some of the climate impacts are already obvious. There’s plenty of data from recent disasters that provide insights into more frequent flooding, land degradation and drought impacting ever-larger areas. Sub-Saharan Africa,
they’re impacting labor productivity in agriculture. Farmers in some areas were able to work at least four hours per day, but now because of extremely high temperatures can only work two hours. So there is a change in behavior. OFQ : How important are these partnerships, not only between the OPEC Fund and the World Bank, but also working with researchers to grasp the latest innovations? SS: Partnerships are needed because the global requirement for climate financing runs into the trillions of US dollars.
The combined development financing provided by MDBs such as the World Bank, OPEC Fund, Asian Development Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development can only bring in billions. We need to join hands to have impact on the ground or else we’ll be too fractured and too thinly spread. To be more effective we have to partner more and focus on effectiveness and innovation, so that our developing country clients don’t get distracted by following different jobs with different donors. Our new World Bank
President Ajay Banga has called for us to foster and strengthen partnerships with other agencies – and
particularly West Africa, is experiencing extreme water stress and then more climate-induced conflicts among herders. We also
in that respect the workshop with the OPEC Fund
“Partnerships are needed because
was a very promising milestone.
the global requirement for climate financing runs into the trillions of dollars.”
have data on how average
temperatures are now so high that
Sanjay Srivastava, World Bank Practice Manager for Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy
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