Environment

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
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

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

Environment

News

Trump election may add pressure to reverse World Bank’s prohibition on support for nuclear power

Donald Trump’s election may result in a revision of World Bank’s long-standing prohibition of support to nuclear power.

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

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

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

Analysis

Year one of World Bank Paris Agreement alignment in the energy sector: ‘green conditionality’ dwarfs green investments

New BWP research finds the Word Bank's approach to Paris alignment is being used to a significant extent to impose ‘green conditionalities' on borrowing countries, especially in the Global South.

1 October 2024 | Briefings
cover illustration of the Observer Summer 2024

Finance

Analysis

IMF board’s reluctance leaves Special Drawing Rights as an underused tool in Fund's toolbox

IMF board's lukewarm endorsement of SDR rechanneling through MDBs stands in stark contrast to continued calls from Global South governments for additional SDR allocations, amid growing debt crisis.

3 July 2024

Environment

News

World Bank's $1 billion loan to South Africa risks undermining just transition by doubling down on 'de-risking' private capital

Despite the Just Energy Transition Partnership's failure to attract private investments in South Africa, the World Bank is doubling down on a private sector led approach to the green transition through $1 billion loan contingent on the separation of Eskom’s activities.

3 July 2024