World Bank's Word Development Report 2010

Its on Climate change.  World Development Report Is unusual for the WB to go for a non-poverty related topic but climate is obviously a burning issue.

Some interesting points from the report:

" existing technologies and best practices could reduce energy consumption in industry and the power sector by 20–30 percent, shrinking carbon footprints without sacrificing growth"

"In Africa, mitigation opportunities are linked to more sustainable land and forest management, to cleaner energy (such as geothermal or hydro power), and to the creation of sustainable urban transport systems. So the mitigation agenda in Africa is likely to be compatible with furthering development. Nor do greater wealth and prosperity inherently produce more greenhouse gases, even if they have gone hand in hand in the past.’

‘Producing more and protecting better in a harsher climate while reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a tall order…. agricultural productivity will have to increase, perhaps by as much as 1.8 percent a year compared to 1 percent a year without climate change… This must be done in a harsher climate with more storms, droughts, and floods. And it has to incorporate agriculture in the mitigation agenda—because agriculture drives about half the deforestation every year and directly contributes 14 percent to overall emissions.’

‘developing countries will bear most of the costs of the damages—some 75–80 percent.’

‘Mitigation finance needed in developing countries could be around $400 billion a year by 2030. Current flows of mitigation finance averaging some $8 billion a year to 2012 pale in comparison. And the estimated $75 billion that could be needed annually for adaptation in developing countries dwarfs the less than $1 billion a year now available. [$400bn] is equivalent to 0.2 percent of projected world GDP in 2030, or 3 percent of today’s global investment spending.’