World Bank to insist projects it funds include steps to curb air pollution

The World Bank is planning "aggressive action" to help developing nations cut emissions of soot and other air pollutants blamed for causing climate change, in a shift also meant to protect human health and aid crop growth.

Of its funding to poor nations, almost 8 per cent - US$18 billion from 2007-12 - goes to sectors such as energy, farming, waste and transport that have a potential to cut emissions, a bank report said.

The bank said it would shift policy to insist that such projects in future included a component to curb air pollution.

"We will try to turn it [the funding] into aggressive action" to cut the pollutants, Rachel Kyte, vice-president of sustainable development at the World Bank, said on the sidelines of a meeting of a 38-nation group in Oslo looking at ways to cut pollution.

"Anything that delays the pace at which global warming is arriving buys time for our clients, the poor countries in the world," Kyte said.

The bank would look for new ways to help, such as reducing pollution from public transport, curbing methane emissions from rice irrigation, and improving the efficiency of high-polluting cooking stoves and brick kilns.