Fact sheets: Assessing multilateral development bank progress on the just energy transition

These fact sheets examine to what extent multilateral development banks are aligning their energy finance with a just, inclusive transition to 100% renewable energy.

Published as part of the Banking on Renewables campaign, each fact sheet analyses official bank data and project documentation from 2022 to 2024, to evaluate whether public finance is genuinely accelerating decarbonisation or inadvertently entrenching dependency on fossil gas and false solutions. 

This evaluation holds banks accountable to their own stated standards and climate commitments using only publicly available information. By focusing on project design and documentation at approval stage, it assesses whether banks consistently apply their policies and frameworks across their energy portfolios, revealing both progress and persistent gaps.

The evaluates assesses MDBs across three criteria:

1. Renewable energy transition: Are investments prioritising sustainable renewables over fossil fuels and false solutions? Do energy projects align with banks’ climate commitments and Paris Agreement obligations?
2. Democratic energy systems: Are financing structures designed to promote equitable access, local ownership, and gender-responsive development as mandated by banks’ inclusion policies?
3. People and planet first: Do project safeguards, consultation processes, and risk assessments meet the standards set by banks’ own environmental and social frameworks?

These fact sheets represent a collaborative civil society effort to strengthen the accountability of development finance institutions while advocating for truly transformative energy transition investments. By identifying discrepancies between policy commitments and project design practices, we aim to catalyse more coherent implementation of banks’ own sustainability goals.

The series includes assessments of the World Bank (IBRD/IDA), the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. They will be published from April through to June 2025. 

World Bank (IBRD/IDA): Slow progress, loan-heavy and gender-blind finance, and high-risk projects

The World Bank is moving very slowly on the just energy transition to renewables, with only one third of investments (2022-2024) in sustainable renewable energy, a quarter still supporting fossil fuel expansion, and a rise in false solutions such as large hydro power, waste to energy, carbon markets and hydrogen. Funding currently too loan-heavy, gender-blind, and too focused on mega projects with high social and environmental risk, meaning that it is not yet supporting the countries and communities who need it most. 

• Read the fact sheet here
• Check the dataset here (spreadsheet)

Asian Development Bank: Slow and uneven progress, too much support for false solutions

The Asian Development Bank is not yet serving the countries and communities most in need of a fair and equitable energy future. Between 2022 and 2024, it classified $5.67 billion in energy investments as renewable, but only $4.14 billion aligns with our criteria for sustainable renewables. Over a quarter—$1.53 billion—went to false solutions such as large hydropower, biofuels, and hydrogen. Finance for these risky technologies rose sharply, reaching over $1 billion in 2024 alone—24% of that year’s energy finance. ADB finance remains overwhelmingly loan-based, gender-blind, and focused on high-risk mega-projects, with a decline in documented community consultation each year.

• Read the fact sheet here
• Check the dataset here (spreadsheet)

African Development Bank: Making progress at a pivotal moment for Africa’s energy transition, but risks remain

The AfDB reached a significant milestone in 2024 by approving no direct funding for fossil fuel projects, but its failure to exclude fossil gas in its Energy Sector Policy signals a risk of backsliding in the future. Investments in false solutions, such as large-scale hydro and grid-heavy mixed projects, rose sharply in 2024 while financing for sustainable renewable energy fell by over 90% and support for decentralised energy solutions declined. While the AfDB has been vocal in calling for more concessional finance and debt justice, 78% of its energy funding between 2022 and 2024 came as loans. Application of risk screening and safeguards also remains inconsistent, while technical assistance and financial intermediary projects continue to operate with limited transparency and oversight.

The new Mission 300 initiative offers a real opportunity for AfDB to lead, by scaling up decentralised, sustainable renewables; prioritising grant-based public finance; and ensuring all projects are designed to protect people and the planet.

• Read the fact sheet here
• Check the dataset here (spreadsheet) 

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: Coming soon

Banner image: Photovoltaic technician at Henrietta PV plant in Mauritius by UNDP Climate, 2019. Retrieved from Flickr in August 2024 under CC BY-NC 4.0, modified from the original.