Given the escalating climate crisis, multilateral lenders must urgently adopt an approach to development aid that emphasises prevention. By incorporating structural vulnerabilities into their allocation formulas, the World Bank and others can strengthen poor countries' resilience and increase fairness, efficiency, and transparency.
Viewing nature as infrastructure is transformative, because it forces us to think in a more systemic way. As we pursue growth and development, we must not only avoid damaging nature; we must also strengthen and enrich it through “nature-positive” investments – all while tapping its vast potential to deliver essential services.