The Global Week of Action kicked off on Friday, the 13th of September, with mobilisations scheduled to take place both in-person and digitally all over the world between the 13th and the 20th. The Global Week of Action provides an important opportunity to reiterate the demands of civil society regarding climate finance and fossil fuel phase out, as well as heighten public pressure for action from our governments, corporations, and international institutions in the week preceding the UN Summit of the Future, the UN General Assembly, and the Global Renewables Summit.
The themes for the eight days are:
- End Fossil Fuels Day of Action
- Day of Action for Just Transition
- Day of Action against IFIs and MDBs
- Day of Action for Tax Justice
- Day of Action against False Solutions
- Day of Action for Debt Justice
- Day of Action for Demilitarisation
- Pay up for Climate Finance Day of Action
Sunday the 15th was the Day of Action Against the IFIs and MDBs, a full day dedicated to targeting the leaders and shareholders of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and demanding they play their part in building a fossil free future.
Our messages are clear: while the IFIs and the MDBs have positioned themselves to play a pivotal role in the just transition, these institutions have been, and continue to be, climate laggards not climate leaders. As they exist today, they are not fit for purpose to be part of the climate finance solution for the climate crisis.
We demand change.
To be more specific…
First and foremost, we demand that the IFIs and MDBs stop funding fossil fuels. They need to stop all funding (both direct and indirect) for projects that cause social and/or ecological harm. This includes the funding of false solutions, the support for the greenwashing agenda to label gas as a ‘transition fuel’ and as a key component required for development, and of neocolonial extractivist projects looking to seize control over the critical minerals of the Global South.
We demand that the MDBs stop sustaining the cycle of debt and fossil fuels. To pay off their debts to the Banks, countries have to take out more loans for quick and dirty fossil fuels, creating more debt, more climate damage, and leading to climate disasters. This cycle pushes countries to choose the quickest option to access the required funding, instead of what is best for their people, landing them in even more debt, which often has to be repaid at the expense of government spending on welfare. This ‘debt-fossil-fuel-nexus’ is unjust and neocolonial and it needs to end now.
We demand more democratic and accountability mechanisms for the IFIs and MDBs. Decision-making within these institutions requires far greater inclusion and transparency. We would also like to see accountability for the role that the banks have played in funding the climate crisis, as well as for the restoration that is required for land and people who have been impacted by fossil fuels and who will be impacted within the course of the transition to renewables.
As we near the end of 2024, and with COP29, a key moment for climate finance, soon approaching, it is important to remember that reforming the IFIs and MDBs is just one piece in the puzzle of a much larger financial architecture in need of reform, and just one step toward ensuring that the transition to renewables is just. If these institutions are to be part of the climate finance solution and are to play a key role in the transition to renewables, it is time to put people and the planet ahead of profits. We see these demands as vital steps toward becoming climate leaders for a just energy future.