The World Bank and other IFIs should get serious about climate adaptation in low-income countries

Instead of merely externalizing high-income countries’ policy priorities (especially mitigation), focus should be on promoting energy access for rapid growth and adaptation.

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I: Two things can be true at the same time about climate change: low-income countries need growth and adaptation; high-income countries must reduce emissions stat

As an estimated 50,000 people gather in Baku for COP29 (at which delegates hope to converge on concrete guidelines for climate finance), it’s important to highlight a few things about the political economy of climate change and development.

I’ve long maintained that policymakers in low-income countries and their partners within the global development community (donors, IFIs, the UN, policy experts, etc) are fluffing it on climate change. The inherent policy extraversion among low-income country elites as well as private interests mean that they are open to any and all climate policies that come with access to fungible cash (many also naively trust that the hawkers of “best practice” cli…