After being one of the first African financial institutions to put respect for ecosystems in funded projects as a main concern, the West African Development Bank (WADB) just adopted a real "Environment and Climate Strategy 2015-2019" which aim is to lay the foundations for green growth in the ECOWAS.

This roadmap focuses on three main areas: Strengthening the capacities of operational units in the environmental assessments field; developing efficient tools for financing and mobilising resources to support the environmental management and the fight against climate change; and consolidate the leadership of WADB in the sub-region on environmental issues.

To strengthen the capacities of the operational units in the environmental assessments field, the goal is to equip WADB with an institutional framework and the best tools for the governance of the environment and climate. This implies many actions, including reviewing WADB's environment assessment tools (EE) in order to reduce climate risks and projects' impacts on the environment and populations, strengthening the operational units' capacities by including climate issues within the policies and procedures in terms of EE as well as bolstering the teams in charge of the environment and climate, and improving the Corporate Social Responsibility policy (CSR), in particular with information and mobilisation to benefit the reduction of the carbon footprint of the bank.

In terms of development of tools and financing mechanisms and mobilisation of resources to support environmental management and the fight against climate change, WADB will rely on partnerships with financial institutions and on the funding mechanisms of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In this framework, the institution in charge of funding the development of the ECOWAS member states was certified in June 2015 as a project implementation entity by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Adaptation to Climate Change Fund (AF). The certification process for Green Climate Fund (GCF) is ongoing. The expected results from these partnerships is the disbursement of FCfa 50 billion in concessionary rate loans from WADB to fund environmental projects and raise FCfa 30 billion from AF, GEF and GFC.

On another level, WADB has already entered into numerous technical partnerships with several key institutions in the fight against climate change field. The headquarters of the bank in Lomé thus hosts, since January 2013, the first Regional Collaboration Centre (RCC) on Mechanism for a Clean Development (MCD), result of the cooperation with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC). Just like all RCC, the one in Lomé is meant to provide direct support to governments, NGOs and the private sector, for the identification and development of MCD projects as part of the Kyoto Protocol. This support on the ground is part of an initiative to improve the regional distribution of MCD projects by removing some obstacles, particularly the lack of resources and expertise, which prevent developing countries from accessing climate finance through the MCD.

Moreover, WADB launched a Carbon Initiative which goal is the promotion and financing of MCD eligible projects. As a multilateral financing institution, it aims to play a catalyst role for the carbon market within ECOWAS. In this perspective, WADB, in partnership with the mandated national authorities and the public and private project leaders, created a portfolio of projects currently underway in the fields of energy efficiency, renewable energies, industrial processes, agriculture, soil preservation, irrigation and forestry.