Climate Change - Andrew Steer "The Silent Revolution"

Developing countries urgently need a global deal on climate change but they’re not waiting for it says Andrew Steer, the World Bank’s Special Envoy for Climate Change.

Speaking to reporters in advance of the UN climate conference in Cancun next week, Steer outlined how developing countries are taking action on climate change and how the World Bank Group is helping.

The World Bank is supporting climate change activities in some 130 countries, Steer said, and a “silent revolution” is going on in terms of developing countries taking action.

"We are struck month by month by how much innovation is going on. Over the last two years, 80 percent of Bank client countries have asked that climate change be one of the pillars we work with them on,” he said. “This is up from about 10 percent ten years ago.”

This is money they could be using for other things but countries are choosing to use it for adaptation, to acquire clean technology, Steer continued.

Asked about what he thinks constitutes success in Cancun, he said progress can be made on two levels—a set of formal decisions on key topics like finance, forests, transfer of technology, mitigation and monitoring and a series of new initiatives on a range of issues that represent real progress.

Describing what he calls such “complementary” initiatives, Steer said there is enormous potential with agriculture.

Action on soil carbon is an opportunity to transform agriculture from climate change problem