World Bank initiates carbon footprint analysis.

• Author: Block, Ben
• Position: EYE ON EARTH

The World Bank, in collaboration with the world's leading multilateral development banks, is creating a common method for estimating the greenhouse gas emissions associated with development projects. The assessments are expected to bring greater transparency to lender investment portfolios and to encourage developing country clients to follow low-carbon development paths, analysts said in July.

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The Bank's decision to measure project-level emissions comes after decades of pressure from nongovernmental groups to shift multilateral lending away from carbon-intensive projects such as coal-fired power plants and toward renewable energy and energy efficiency. According to former Environmental Defense Fund senior counsel Bruce Rich, the World Bank Group, Asian Development Bank, and European Investment Bank are among the top five public international financiers of coal-fired power since 1994. Their collective investments total more than US$23.3 billion in 96 fossil fuel-related...