Development progress has stalled in many countries amid low growth, increased fragility and conflict, pandemic-related setbacks, and the impacts of climate change. An essential part of our vision to end poverty on a livable planet is helping people and communities adapt and prepare for the unpredictable and life-changing weather patterns they are experiencing. Droughts, extreme heat, flooding and storms push millions into poverty annually, causing unemployment and risking unplanned internal and cross-border migration. Every year, an estimated 26 million people fall into poverty due to extreme weather events and natural disasters. These shocks have the potential to push a total of 130 million into poverty by 2030. We are supporting countries to meet these challenges in a way that builds resilience across families, communities, and companies, and doesn’t inadvertently increase pollution.
Helping people and communities adapt means making development investments that improve quality of life while also creating local jobs, strengthening education, and promoting economic stability. It also ensures that limited development resources are used wisely—by building infrastructure that can withstand future disasters, rather than needing to be rebuilt after each one. The World Bank Group is committed to meeting the needs of its clients – developing countries – who are asking our projects to have climate benefits, seeing it as smart development for their unique situations. This is a practical approach that opens the door to every resource at our disposal—bringing in industries and investors across the spectrum to participate. It creates opportunities, ensuring that no one is left out of the solutions we need for a more sustainable future.
This means building hospitals that can withstand natural disasters and roads that don't get washed away with rainfall. Countries are investing in resource efficient rice harvests, heat-resistant varieties of seeds, drip irrigation, and restoring forests and mangroves to protect rural and coastal communities, improve their food security, and identify new private sector opportunities that will create jobs.
We are supporting reliable and affordable energy, boosting utility efficiency, and increasing regional power integration. We are also investing in country priorities – for example, improving affordable and efficient public transportation to get people back and forth to work, or improving on-farm productivity with new varieties of seeds and healthier livestock.
Last Updated: Apr 28, 2025