Climate deal reflects seriousness to preserve earth: World Bank

Washington, Dec 13: The world bank has welcomed the "historic" agreement reached on climate change draft in Paris, saying the deal reflects aspiration and seriousness to preserve the planet for future generations.

"We welcome the historic agreement that has just been reached in Paris. The world has come together to forge a deal that finally reflects the aspiration, and the seriousness, to preserve our planet for future generations," said President of World Bank Jim Young Kim.

Jim said the Paris agreement left no one behind – protecting the poorest people and the most vulnerable countries by calling on all to hold the increase in temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"It sends the much needed signal to trigger the massive sums of public and private sector investments needed to drive economies toward a carbon neutral world as advised by science," Jim said yesterday.

"While doing this, we will strive to ensure that there is the necessary finance to provide resilience for developing countries. It changes development. We agree there is no development without tackling climate change. We cannot poison the planet and thrive," he said.

"We called for strong ambition, for remarkable partnerships, for mobilisation of finance, and for implementation of national climate plans Paris delivered. Now the job becomes our shared responsibility," Jim said.

The World Bank Group is ready to help immediately and will do its utmost to realise this vision of prosperity, he added.

A crucial climate change deal was clinched yesterday with the approval of India, China and the US, after days of tough negotiations here with the legally-binding pact seeking to limit global warming to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius and committing USD 100 billion a year from 2020 to help developing nations.

On the crucial financing issue, developed countries agreed to muster at least USD 100 billion a year from 2020 to help developing nations.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius banged the gavel to announce that the Paris agreement has been adopted, marking consensus among the ministers, who stood for several minutes to clap.

PTI