Mobilizing private investment and scaling innovation are becoming central to closing the gap between climate ambition and real-world implementation, as Valerie Hickey, Director for Environment at the World Bank Group, outlined in an exclusive interview with Qazinform News Agency, highlighting both the progress achieved and the structural challenges that continue to shape global climate efforts, particularly for developing economies.
The World Bank has been scaling up climate financing in recent years. In your view, what are the biggest gaps that still remain in global climate action, particularly for developing countries? The WBG delivered $50.8 billion in development finance with climate co-benefits under the shared Multilateral Development Bank methodology in fiscal year 2025 (FY25)—which covers July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025.
These efforts are focused on supporting countries to boost economic growth, lift people out of poverty, and create jobs while facing droughts, storms, and floods that are hitting harder and more often. On the ground, this has resulted in 136 million people with stronger climate resilience and 208 million with improved food security.
WBG interventions are on track to cut 331 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year. But this is still far from what is needed. The good news is that the resources exist in global capital markets; the challenge we are trying to solve is in mobilizing and channeling them.
Private sector involvement is essential - but it doesn’t happen on its own. Governments must invest in critical infrastructure, adopt business-friendly policies, and strengthen institutions that create investment opportunities. Financial instruments that help blend different sources of capital and derisk private capital must be scaled up.
That’s why in FY25, IFC delivered $8.1 billion in climate finance and mobilized a further $16.5 billion from other sources to help derisk opportunities for the private sector. In fact, since 2021, the World Bank Group has mobilized more than $52 billion in private climate finance.
Many countries are accelerating their energy transition, yet fossil fuels still dominate in several regions. What practical pathways do you see for countries to balance energy security with decarbonization goals? Worldwide, around 666 million people are without electricity, and millions more live without accessible, reliable, and affordable energy.
At the World Bank Group, we take an all-of-the-above approach to energy as a key enabler of development - enabling people and businesses to use affordable and reliable energy access to create jobs, increase incomes, and build human capital. There is no one way to do this.
But a key step is for governments to design and implement a clear, long-term regulatory framework that signals to investors where the country is headed. This includes, for example, improving the governance of utilities and repurposing energy subsidies that are poorly targeted or underachieving, or are simply too costly.
Without that certainty, private capital will not flow; and the public purse cannot pick up the cost of energy access by itself. Next comes strengthening the foundations of the energy system, including through grid stabilization and last-mile connectivity to ensure no family or community is left behind.