During the month of August 2014, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the World Bank reported on various climate finance projects. The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) announced a publication on the ADB's climate finance projects in the Asia-Pacific, and the World Bank highlighted its climate and disaster risk screening policies.
On projects, ADB approved funding for two projects: US$15.6 million for rebuilding transport infrastructure damaged by recent flash floods in Solomon Islands; US$118 million for providing year-round access to markets and social services in nine poor rural provinces in Cambodia through a safer, cost-effective rural road network. The latter financing package includes a parallel loan of US$54 million. Climate change considerations are being incorporated into the project design, given that rural roads are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather and flooding. [ADB Press Release on Solomon Islands] [ADB Press Release on Cambodia]
ADB also reported on its first bus rapid transit (BRT) project in China. Located in the city of Lanzhou, the BRT system began operations in December 2012, and carried 290,000 passengers in the month of September in 2013. The Lanzhou sustainable urban transport project is also ADB's first transport project to support an application for certification under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to offset a part of the operating costs. [ADB Press Release]
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- ADB
- CIF
- transportation
