Scaling Climate Action by Lowering Emissions (SCALE), an umbrella multi-partner trust fund, is the “one-stop shop” for all World Bank-administered results-based climate finance programs. SCALE is not just a source of climate finance, but also an instrument for policy dialogue and broader engagement to incentivize low carbon development.
The SCALE partnership will pool funding from the global community – including donor countries, the private sector and foundations - and make it available for the most impactful programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, providing an average of $50 million in grants per project in the form of results-based climate finance.
SCALE builds on the World Bank’s 20 years’ experience supporting projects that generate high quality, high integrity emissions reductions credits using results-based climate finance - grant payments for achieving pre-agreed climate-related results, such as verified emission reductions.
Technical advice and capacity strengthening supported by SCALE will help bridge the gap between the supply of and demand for high quality emission reductions and help unlock additional private sector finance from international carbon markets, including for areas such as the just energy transition and preventing deforestation.
SCALE will support countries to build a track record of generating verified emissions reductions that they can apply towards their national emission reduction targets (per their Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs) and yield excess credits that can be made available for carbon markets.
People and communities are at the heart of all programs under the SCALE partnership. Equitable benefit sharing arrangements ensure that all people including indigenous peoples and local communities, are fairly included in and recognized for their crucial role in reducing emissions.
Social inclusion is a central element of the design of all SCALE programs. An associated fund - Enabling Access to Benefits while Lowering Emissions (EnABLE) – will enhance the inclusion of marginalized communities and indigenous peoples in all programs under the partnership through specially designed benefit sharing arrangements.
SCALE supports just and inclusive transitions towards reduced greenhouse gas emissions in three major areas:
- Natural Climate Solutions (e.g., changes in land use practices to maximize carbon sequestration from forest landscapes, including mangroves; emission reduction efforts in agriculture; etc.).
- Sustainable Infrastructure Solutions (e.g., transformations that include deep decarbonization of the power sector; modal shift and electrification in transport; emissions reduction efforts in industries, waste management, and water supply; etc.).
- Fiscal and Financial Solutions (e.g., strategic policy changes involving fossil fuel subsidy reform, carbon taxation; green bonds; financial sector reform).
