Climate Change
Between flood and drought - fighting climate change
Mangrove forests - under threat worldwide. Source: KfW Photo Archive / Bernhard Schurian
Climate change is already causing increased flooding, violent storms, desertification, and growing water scarcity. Many developing countries are particularly affected and the poorest of the poor already experience the direct effects of changes in the climate. Crop failures, the increasing spread of tropical diseases, and inadequate water supplies are threatening the very basis of these people’s survival. Climate change is principally caused by the industrialised nations, which therefore have a special responsibility when it comes to climate protection. The German Financial Cooperation is rising to this challenge in many different ways. On the one hand it is contributing to the fight against climate change (climate protection or "mitigation"), and on the other hand it is supporting the partner countries in adjusting to it (climate change "adaptation").
Actions by KfW Entwicklungsbank
The KfW Entwicklungsbank is active on both counts. To combat climate change, it is supporting and financing projects, aimed at avoiding greenhouse gas emissions in many areas. Alone the projects committed to in 2010 will reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the partner countries by 10.3 million tonnes per year. This is about one per cent of Germany's greenhouse gas emissions or roughly equal to the emissions caused by the inhabitants of the city of Cologne.
The KfW Entwicklungsbank is also helping its partner countries to adapt to the climate change. Most of the environmental impacts of climate change concern water-related phenomena: changing precipitation levels, droughts and desertification, low water levels and water scarcity, lower groundwater levels, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, storm surges and flooding. Therefore water often plays a key role of climate change adaptation strategies. Integrated approaches are essential means of protection against the negative impacts of climate change. Adaptation strategies and measures are therefore developed and implemented within the framework of integrated water resource management (IWRM). Due to the uncertainty of regional and local climate forecasting, we are concentrating on what is known as "no regret" investments – i.e. investments that make sense even when the effects of climate change are uncertain. In this area, the KfW Entwicklungsbank promotes activities in the fields of water and sanitation, irrigated agriculture, ecosystem protection, and disaster control.
Transfer of Knowledge and Technology
Today the KfW Entwicklungsbank is financing numerous projects to improve efficiency by reducing water losses and managing demand, to increase water retention, and to protect groundwater and surface water by treating sewage.
Moreover the KfW Entwicklungsbank also contributes to climate adaptation in the area of irrigated agriculture. Increasing efficiency by introducing new irrigation technologies such as drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation, as well as reducing water losses in the distribution systems (for example in Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Ecuador), improving water retention, including the use of small dams (in Bolivia and south-east Mauritania) or re-using wastewater (such as in Tunisia and Jordan) are only some examples of the work carried out by the German Financial Cooperation.
Further Information
- FC Activities in the Natural Resources and Rainforests Sector
- FC Activities in the Environment and Climate Sector
Last updated: July 2011
