Edited by Jenny Jiang

Transcript of World Bank President Jim Yong Kim’s remarks on climate change on Nov. 19, 2012:

This report is a sobering look at what a 4 degree celsius warmer world would look like. There would be massive disruptions in some of our most basic systems: water supply, the viability of coastal cities, entire populations that live in low-lying areas.

But moreover, it has implications for disaster risk management. It has implications for food supply. And most importantly for us, the worst impacts are going to happen in the poorest countries to the poorest people.

You know, I have a 3-year-old son, and when he’s my age, he could be living in a completely different world – one in which we don’t have enough food to feed our population, one in which cities are inundated with water.

And the window is narrow. We’ve got to take action now.

You know, we deal with many different problems at the World Bank, and so many of them are traceable back to the problem of climate change.

Food security is an enormous issue related to climate change. The management of disasters is an enormous and growing issue related to climate change.

We have to take action now. We know we can do it. And we know we can also look ahead to inspiring low-carbon future. We just have to work together to make it happen.

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Learn More:

YouTube.com/WorldBank: ‘Turn Down the Heat’ Warns Without Policy Action, Results Could Be Dire

WorldBank.org: Climate Change Report Warns of Dramatically Warmer World This Century