Tell the MDBs to make the big shift

In 2017, nine Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) announced that they would develop a framework to align their finance with the Paris Agreement to combat climate change and keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C of warming. In 2018 they set up a joint working group and committed to giving a public update on their progress towards a joint framework in 2020. However, we are still waiting for the update.

In the context of COVID-19 making progress on aligning with the Paris Agreement is even more urgent. People lacking access to modern energy are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19, whilst the negative impacts of climate change continue to grow. Public banks are spending huge amounts of money in response to the COVID-19 crisis. It is vital that any recovery package must not include investment in fossil fuels that contribute to climate change, and should instead invest in sustainable renewable energy accessible by all. This is why we urgently need an update from the MDBs on their plans to align their finance with the Paris Agreement.

Join us in calling on the MDBs to commit to a just recovery that includes financing a sustainable, low-carbon future that reduces vulnerability to climate change and other crises and provides clean energy for the world’s most vulnerable people.

TAKE ACTION

Email the presidents of the MDBs and ask them to phase out all support for fossil fuels and increase support for clean energy access across their lending.

We have provided editable suggested text for your email below.

Email the MDBs

To the Presidents of the Multilateral Development Banks working on joint alignment with the Paris Agreement,

The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to have devastating impacts on people across the globe, and the world’s most vulnerable people have the fewest resources to cope with the crisis. Choices made now on how to react to the crisis will have impacts on peoples’ lives for many years to come. In your response to this crisis, I call on you to implement a people-centred, unconditional approach which meets the immediate needs of the world’s most vulnerable people, as well as implementing measures to ensure resilience to future crises and a more sustainable and just future for all.

An announcement by MDBs on your progress towards a joint framework on Paris alignment is even more urgent in the context of the recovery from COVID-19 and should happen before the end of 2020. People lacking access to modern energy are amongst the most vulnerable to COVID-19, as hospitals and health centres lack electricity, and using charcoal, wood or coal for heating and cooking can exacerbate respiratory illnesses and conditions. Meanwhile climate change remains a threat to people all over the world and we are increasingly experiencing the negative impacts.

As part of the recovery response by the MDBs, it is vital that in addition to immediate, unconditional support to people and health services any recovery package must stop the investment in fossil fuels that contribute to climate change and must include investment in sustainable renewable energy accessible by all.

I call on you as a member of the MDB Working Group to publish your progress on the joint framework on Paris alignment, and to make the following commitments and apply them transparently across lending, including economic stimulus packages in response to the COVID-19 crisis:

•	End direct and indirect finance for all fossil fuels, including lending for ‘associated facilities’ for fossil fuel projects, policy-based lending, and all investments in fossil fuels through financial intermediaries.

•	Rapidly scale up investment in energy access and a just transition. Align all your lending and operations with high-probability pathways to 1.5°C and universal energy access. Your investments in renewable energy and other transition projects must ensure the free, prior, and informed consent of impacted communities.
 
•	Work to announce a joint MDB framework on alignment with 1.5°C by the end of 2020 with no further delay.

Climate change and lack of access to renewable energy have significantly increased people’s vulnerability to crises including the negative impacts of COVID-19. The response to COVID-19 must ensure that it does not make people even more vulnerable in future, but instead increases resilience.

Yours sincerely,

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