Vienna, Austria: The World Bank Group, along with 12 international climate advocacy organisations, has launched a set of six Principles for Dialogue on Climate Action, which will guide discussions at the global-, local- and country-level, as governments and their private sector partners implement plans and identify solutions to lessen the impacts of climate change.

Calling climate change “a fundamental threat to economic development”, with a potential to push 100 million people into poverty by 2030, the World Bank Group has said that developing countries will need about USD 100 billion of new investments by 2020 to bolster their economic resilience against the effects of climate change.

“When governments establish inclusive dialogue with the private sector as well as international organisations, civil society and communities, they can produce better integrated and more comprehensive strategies capable of addressing a crisis whose impacts extend from remote villages and islands to the planet as a whole,” read the Principles.

Reiterating its point on cooperation between governments and the private sector, the Group said that dialogue between the two is essential to accelerate the investments in emerging economies.

Elaborating on the role that the private sector can play in tackling climate change, World Bank Group explained that the sector, with its availability of significant financial resources, dedication to innovation and ability to develop new technologies, has a leading role to play in the urgent global effort to reduce the negative effects of climate change and create the healthy, thriving zero-carbon economy of the future. It stated that CEOs from industries ranging from textiles to technology companies have pledged to scale-up efforts and investment in climate action.

Furthermore, for the private sector, effective dialogues, as outlined in the Principles for Dialogue on Climate Action, can increase the quality and predictability of the business environment in a green economy, thereby, the Group added, it can provide a path to growth for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets and a means of moving people out of poverty.

Announcing the Principles at the start of the Dialogue for Climate Action conference in Vienna, Anabel Gonzalez, Senior Director of the World Bank Group’s Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice, said: “This represents a significant milestone in global climate action and is an important step forward in bringing together governments, businesses, and civil society to collectively take action to fight climate change. The principles help scale opportunities for industry action in climate change and investments in climate technologies and will help reinforce the global commitment made in Paris.”

Stating that the Principles capture the essence and the starting point of how to design effective action-oriented climate dialogues, Abdelouahed Fikrat, General Secretary, Moroccan Ministry of Environment, said that Morocco has established a Centre of Competences for Climate Change (4C Morocco) “as a capacity building and dialogue platform for private and public actors as well as academia and civil society”. “The principles of the declaration and the event,” he added, “holds potential to contribute significantly to COP 22 agenda and offer a real tool to policy makers to engage with private sector.”

The Group informed that signatories to the Principles, include: Arçelik A.S.; Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD); Carbon Trust; CLASP; Dalberg Global Development Advisors; Danish Industry; SITRA; University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership; We Mean Business; and the World Bank Group. Several more organisations are participating in the two-day Dialogue for Climate Action event and have pledged their support to the Principles.