ADB to lend $5bn as climate aid

KARACHI: Climate aid is included in up to $5 billion in new loans the Asian Development Bank (ADB) expects to provide to countries in Central and West Asia as part of its growing push to help countries withstand the impact of floods, droughts and extreme weather, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.

“The whole world is facing a kind of climate emergency,” Yevgeniy Zhukov, the bank’s director general for Central and West Asia that includes Pakistan, said in an interview in Karachi Oct. 26.

“We are trying to refocus our investments, not just in Pakistan, but in the region, on focusing more on climate change.”

The bank, which earlier this month gave $1.5 billion to Pakistan for social protection and food security after the devastating flooding, is looking to approve as much as $500 million in December to the climate-ravaged nation.

Monsoon flooding and melting glaciers in Pakistan killed more than 1,700 people and caused $40 billion in damage to homes, farms and infrastructure.

The ADB that is currently in progress of projects worth as much as $25 billion in the region is reviewing its next year pipeline for climate change impact, Zhukov said.

In Pakistan, it’s looking to improve a coastal drainage systems to help prevent another catastrophic flooding.

The bank, which has been traditionally invested in infrastructure, transport and energy projects is making more room for disaster resilience and transition to renewable energy, said Zhukov.

“We have to do something, otherwise if we just keep doing kind of things as usual and just continue our kind of infrastructure investments and then next monsoon this infrastructure will be washed away,” said Zhukov.