Today, at COP29, World Bank President Ajay Banga announced a significant commitment to increase climate finance available through Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) for low- and middle-income countries, aiming for a total of $120 billion by 2030. Banga also joined global calls for the Climate Finance Goal (NCQG) to ensure that countries receive adequate resources to address the escalating costs of the climate crisis.
Developing countries have made it clear that the quality of climate finance must be prioritised alongside the quantity. As MDBs play a critical role in financing climate action, they must focus on two key priorities:
- Complete Alignment with the Paris Agreement: All financing must be fully aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement, transitioning away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy sources.
- Concessional and Non-Debt Creating Financing: MDBs financing must not burden developing countries with additional debt.
Additionally, it is crucial to recognise that the primary responsibility for the core climate financing lies with wealthy countries that have contributed the most to the climate crisis. Countries must step up to meet their obligations. Climate finance is needed in the trillions for Global South countries to cope with the climate crisis and bring people out of poverty, delivering sustainable development.
Countries already face a mounting debt crisis and any form of climate finance agreed here at COP29 cannot contribute further to this.
Quotes from Big Shift members on the ground at COP29
Bronwen Tucker, Public Finance lead at Oil Change International said, “We have seen this movie before. The MDBs and the rich countries like Canada, the UK, and the US who hold the most decision-making power at the banks have been setting and missing targets to increase their climate finance and private sector mobilisation for more than a decade. The MDBs have a track record of failure to deliver on the scale, fair distribution, or quality of finance they promise. This is a distraction for rich countries to try to get off the hook for paying their fair share of the new climate finance goal due at COP29. To fund a just energy transition we need rich countries’ governments to pay up in grants — not MDB loans — for climate action. There is no shortage of public money to do this. They can unlock trillions by ending fossil fuel handouts, taxing the super rich, and changing unfair financial rules."
Fiza Qureshi, Gas Campaigner, Big Shift Global said "It’s disheartening that ample finance flows into fossil fuels and gas, while the banks discuss climate finance here at COP29. This imbalance speaks volumes about MDBs' true commitment to the Paris Agreement. It’s deeply concerning to hear MDB representatives at COP distancing themselves by claiming they’re 'merely financiers, not climate banks,' as if they’re not party to the Paris goals. Even more alarming is the AfDB's support for gas as a ‘transition fuel,’ promoting it as a clean cooking solution for African women. Civil society stands firm in its concerns and calls for MDBs to align with genuine climate justice with both quantity and quality to fulfil their Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) towards the global South.”
Jason Weiner, Executive Director & Legal Director, at Bank Climate Advocates said, “The World Bank Group and its member states seem disturbingly indifferent to the climate crisis that’s accelerating before our eyes. As its own accountability mechanism just confirmed, the International Finance Corporation (the World Bank Group’s private sector arm) is not meeting its obligations under its own policies or international law. Every day the World Bank Group fails to act as obliged, its investments fuel more avoidable GHG emissions, adding to the disaster they’re supposed to be helping us prevent. The World Bank Group’s position that it neither has its own obligations under the Paris Agreement, or under human rights treaties, to align each of its investments and its overall finance flows with 1.5ºC, is both legally inaccurate and reckless. The bank must start adhering to its policies now, and take swift action to align them with its legal obligations.”
Petra Kjell Wright, Campaigns Manager at Recourse, “The development banks claim to drive “transformative climate action", but when we dug into their climate finance figures from 2023, we found projects involving fossil fuels, human rights violations, and environmental destruction. The MDBs made a commitment to align with the Paris Agreement, they must live up to that by putting peoples’ rights and the planet – not profit – at the heart of their climate finance as they scale it up. Only then will the MDBs genuinely help to address climate change for the most vulnerable people and places.”
Beyrra Triasdian, Renewable Energy Manager, from Trend Asia, "The development banks are counting projects which threaten our way of life and our precious nature as climate finance. Too often, these don’t bring energy to the people who need it most. It’s concerning that MDBs are putting public money into more private finance, when they are supposed to be development banks, not investment banks. MDBs should be banking on climate finance for people, not for profit.”
Notes to editors:
- Are multilateral development banks a safe pair of hands when it comes to delivering climate finance? Research published today by Recourse + 18 organisations/networks shows MDB climate finance flowing to the wrong kinds of projects in the wrong places.
- MDBS still provided an average $2.6 billion annually to fossil fuel projects from 2021 to 2023. On average, the World Bank Group (WBG) provided the most finance for fossil fuels at $1 billion a year. At least 60% of this was for fossil gas. WBG has financed at least USD 17 billion in fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement, including almost $410 million in financial year 2023.
- New Bretton Woods Project report finds that World Bank Development Policy Financing (DPF) forms a key dimension of the Bank's private sector-led approach to power sector decarbonisation strategy and research shows a pattern of promoting neoliberal reforms in many countries' energy sectors, raising questions about alignment of WBG’s approach with climate justice principles
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The just issued International Finance Corporation (IFC) Compliance Advisor Ombudsman's (CAO’s) Climate Change Opinion substantiates Bank Climate Advocates’ findings of IFC's systematic failures to adhere to its policies for GHG emissions, and details the inadequacies of its policies to align IFC's finance flows with the Paris Agreement and the 1.5°C warming limitation objective. The significant findings from the CAO Opinion can be found here.
General media enquiries
Sophie Richmond, Global Lead - Big Shift Campaign, srichmond@climatenetwork.org / ±44 7427 353149 (WhatsApp/Signal)
Dara Snead, Communications Officer - dsnead@climatenetwork.org /+44 7356 160136 (WhatsApp/Signal)