Climate change

IFI governance

Analysis

Spring Meetings 2025 Wrap-up: Don’t look up! Bank and Fund leadership self-censors on climate change and gender issues, as US tariffs rock global economic outlook

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicates US will stay in the Bank and Fund, claiming “America First does not mean America alone,” as tariffs and rising debt vulnerabilities prompt gloomy forecast.

30 April 2025
Barbados finance minister Ryan Straughn chairs V20's ministerial session on 24 April, during the 2025 World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings in Washington DC. Photo: CVF/V20.

IFI governance

Analysis

V20 communiqué analysis Spring Meetings 2025: amid attacks on climate action, climate vulnerable countries once again highlight urgent need to step back from the brink

Faced with deafening silence from Bank and Fund leadership on climate issues at the Spring Meetings, climate vulnerable countries demand urgent changes to global financial architecture.

30 April 2025

IFI governance

Background

Catalyzing climate finance in fragile contexts - What’s being done and what still needs doing?

Notes from the 23 April Civil Society Policy Forum session titled “Catalyzing climate finance in fragile contexts - What’s being done and what still needs doing?”

23 April 2025 | Minutes
illustration of the Bretton Woods Observer winter 2024, presenting the World Bank globe sitting on a hidden pile of gold looking at the Wall Street Bull (which represents the financial sector)

Environment

Analysis

COP29 sees MDBs climate finance take centre stage, as civil society brands new climate finance goal a ‘betrayal’

Rich countries agree to provide a paltry $300 billion in public finance by 2035 including funds channelled through MDBs, as Small Island States and Least Developed Countries stage walkout.

12 December 2024

Accountability

News

IFC ends investment in waste-to-energy incineration projects in Gujarat, India, following civil society campaign

While IFC’s withdrawal is welcome, civil society urges the Bank to stop funding WTE projects and move towards zero-waste solutions instead.

15 April 2025

Accountability

News

CAO report adds to concerns about IFC's compliance with its own GHG emissions obligations

CAO report substantiates civil society findings about IFC’s failure to comply with its own requirements for GHG emissions measurement, alternatives analysis, mitigation and disclosure.

12 December 2024
Protest against carbon markets at UN Climate Change Conference Baku on 14th November 2024. Credit: IISD/ENB | Mike Muzurakis.

Environment

News

MIGA’s new guarantee for voluntary carbon markets risks shielding big polluters

CSOs warn MIGA's proposal at COP29 to de-risk carbon markets for private investors could shield polluters from accountability, leaving local communities to bear the costs.

12 December 2024
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva clasps hands with World Bank President Ajay Banga at the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable during the 2024 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC, on 23 October 2024. Credit: IMF Photo/Allison Shelley

IFI governance

Analysis

Annual Meetings 2024 Wrap-up - Don’t look back: BWIs plough down path of reforms lacking evidence and willingness to engage with broader UN-led reform processes

The 2024 World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings, taking place in the context of the institutions’ 80th anniversary, offered little substantive reform despite multiple ongoing organisational processes and reviews.

30 October 2024

Environment

News

BWP’s new briefing finds year one of World Bank’s Paris Agreement alignment in the energy sector deepened 'green conditionalities'

New BWP briefing on the World Bank’s Paris Agreement alignment in the energy sector finds that, in its first year, the focus was on deepening 'green conditionality' and structuring a private sector-led energy transition.

16 October 2024

Environment

News

Jamaica’s World Bank-brokered catastrophe bond fails to pay despite devastation of Hurricane Beryl

Bond's 'parametric criteria' were not triggered by powerful storm, despite the entire island being declared a disaster zone.

16 October 2024