Nusa Dua, Bali (ANTARA News) - World Bank (WB) President Jim Yong Kim has encouraged the private sector to increase investment in fields that bring positive impacts on global climate change mitigation.

"The aspirations of young people to support climate change countermeasures have rapidly increased in the past 10 years, and we can accommodate these aspirations by mobilizing the role of the public and private sectors to invest," Kim remarked here on Friday.

Kim underlined the importance of investing in climate change mitigation at the opening of a seminar themed "Investing in Positive Impacts: What Needs to be Enhanced" as one of the sessions of the 2018 IMF-WB Annual Meeting.

"In future, the World Bank will be a facilitator to allocate investment, so that the positive impacts are more tangible," he noted.

This commitment was conveyed by Kim in response to the private sector complaints, as the government is more responsive to facilitating commercial projects than those that could bring positive impacts but only be seen in the long term, such as carbon emission reduction commitments (COP21) to tackle climate change and achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

According to Kim, that condition makes the private sector hesitant to allocate funds to invest in fields that could bring positive impacts, such as green projects and SDGs. One aspect should be taken into account that businesses always expect profits.

Kim added that the WB needed the commitment of world leaders to take concrete steps to succeed in mobilizing the public and private sectors to allocate funds to investments that yield positive impacts.

"If we do not carry it out now, the climate change impacts will get worse, and young people, who are unable to compete, will be left with no choice but to adapt to this natural change and suffer even further in future," Kim stated.

Currently, International Financial Cooperation (IFC), a member of the WB group that focuses on the financing sector, is discussing the principle of reference to facilitate institutional investors, who manage assets of nearly US$100 trillion worldwide, to enter the investment market that brings about positive impacts and contribute to the SDGs 2030.

Reporting by Azizah Fitriyanti
Editing by Libertina, Yoseph Hariyadi

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Editor: Heru Purwanto
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