Recourse and partners at the IMF and World Bank Group Annual Meetings 2025

At the Annual Meetings 2025, Recourse is calling on the IMF and World Bank Group to hold the line on climate, deliver remedy, and support truly sustainable development.

We are at a crucial moment for the World Bank Group’s commitments to sustainability. Progress has been made in recent years to reduce direct lending for fossil fuels, but the Bank is still supporting fossil gas and other harmful projects via intermediary lenders and guarantees. To ensure a liveable planet, the World Bank Group must:

• Prevent backsliding on climate commitments
• Stop funding fossil fuels, even indirectly, and exclude gas from Mission 300 compacts
• Bank on renewables that power people and protect the planet
• Avoid false solutions, like large hydro, CCUS, hydrogen, and nuclear energy. 

The World Bank Group has made some progress in recognising its role in environmental and social harms, but too many communities are still waiting for remedy. The ongoing merger of its environmental and social safeguards, and review of the IFC/ MIGA Sustainability Framework, provide a generational opportunity to learn these lessons, create a gold standard safeguarding system and deliver on remedy. We call for:

• A new safeguard on financial intermediary lending for IFC/MIGA
• Remedy for coal-affected communities in the Philippines, India and Indonesia
• A full investigation of the IFC’s role in the Pathivara cable car project, Nepal

The IMF is also facing pressure to roll back on climate work, yet our research has shown that the Fund’s is not doing enough to address climate change in its surveillance and policies, posing a big risk to its mandate of macroeconomic stability. It is time for the IMF to get serious about aligning with the Paris Agreement, including Article 2.1c, and stop greenwashing its activities. We are calling on the IMF to:

• Strengthen climate surveillance in the ongoing Comprehensive Surveillance Review to ensure fiscal, financial, monetary and exchange rate policy advice does not undermine climate action and development.
• Ensure IMF programmes are consistent with the Paris Agreement and do not lock in fossil fuel dependency in the upcoming Conditionalities and Program Design review.

As staff and shareholders of the IMF and the World Bank Group gather for the meetings, a delegation of Recourse staff are in Washington DC, along with partners from South Africa, Tanzania, the Philippines, Nepal, and Indonesia. These partners have first-hand knowledge and experience of the impacts and outcomes of World Bank/IFC investments and IMF conditionalities. We are also working together with partners in the Big Shift Global coalition, and are co-sponsoring several events in the Civil Society Policy Forum (CSPF).

Join these events and online actions the Annual Meetings 2025:

Monday 13 Oct.

• (Online) Launch of the latest briefing in the Banking on Renewables campaign
  From false solutions to truly just transitions: Recommendations for MDB clean energy financing
  Follow Recourse on social media for more info

Tuesday 14 Oct.

• From Seville to the CSPF, Reimagining IMF Governance for a multilateralism fit for purpose
  16:30-18:00; Location IMF HQ2-03B-768B
  Join on Zoom (restricted event)

Wednesday 15 Oct.

• MDBs and Just Transition: Opportunities, Priorities and Principles for a More Just Role in Transition Minerals
  11:00-12:30; Location WBG I 2-220
  Livestream
• IMF comprehensive surveillance review: looking back and forward
  11:00-12:30; Location IMF HQ2-03B-768B
  Join on Zoom
  
• WBG at the Forest Frontier: Rethinking Forest Finance and Community Rights
  14.30-16.00; Location WBG I 2-220
  Livestream
• How the IMF can support struggling countries better: Taking a look at the IMFs Review of Program Design and Conditionality
  16.00-17:30; Location IMF HQ2-03B-768B
  Join on Zoom 

Thursday 16 Oct.

• (Online and around the world) Mobilisations demanding to Stop the Harm! Cancel the Debt! Reparations and Just Transition Now!
  Follow Recourse, APMDD, CAN International and Big Shift Global on social media for more info
• A potential integration of the World Bank and IFC/MIGA accountability mechanisms: How can we ensure complainants’ best interests?”
  11.00-12.30; Location WBG I 2-220
  Livestream

Friday 17 Oct.

• (Online) Bhola IPP: People and Ecology in Peril
  Documentary launch by CLEAN Bangladesh
  Watch the trailer here
• Mission 300 in Action: Operationalizing National Energy Compacts for a Just Transition
  9:00-10.30; Location WBG I 2-250
  Livestream
• How can DPFs promote equitable energy access and accomplish climate objectives?
  11.00-12.30; Location WBG I 2-250
  Livestream
• Transparency as a Twin-Engine: Driving Community Ownership, Development Effectiveness, and Investment Efficiency at the IFC
  14:30-16:00; Location WBG I 2-250
  Livestream
• Scrutinizing the IMF role on debt issues
  15:30-17:00; Location IMF HQ2-03B-768B
  Join on Zoom

For media or other enquiries, please contact info[at]re-course.org.