The bank released a 59-page climate action plan Thursday designed to help less developed nations meet global warming goals they set last December in Paris. The private-sector arm of the international financial organization plans to increase its $2.3 billion-a-year spending on fighting climate change to $3.5 billion a year by 2020. Officials hope to spur $13 billion a year in similar private investments.
The bank also plans to help developing countries add 30 gigawatts of electricity to power 150 million homes without emissions of heat-trapping gases.
"We're making climate change a central part of everything we're doing," said John Roome, the bank's senior director for climate change.
The World Bank Group said it spends about $10.3 billion a year on climate, which is slated to rise to $16 billion a year by 2020.
