Report and briefing on MIGA: "greening guarantees" or "de-risking disaster"?

• Report published with the Big Shift, Eurodad and Bank Climate Advocates:
  Green guarantees? Examining MIGA’s ‘greening’ of financial intermediaries for climate finance

• Briefing for civil society groups: De-risking disaster? How MIGA’s guarantees to financial intermediaries are potentially enabling investments in fossil gas projects

1 July 2025 marked the deadline by which the World Bank Group’s guarantee agency, MIGA, promised to align all its operations with the Paris Agreement. The agency claims to have met this deadline one year early, however, verifying the claim is difficult due to the lack of transparency surrounding MIGA’s guarantees to financial intermediaries (FIs).

Mainly big international commercial banks, FIs comprise the largest sector in MIGA’s portfolio. The agency claims to engage FIs in ‘greening’ efforts, focusing on mobilising private sector investments for climate finance.

This report examines the guarantees issued by MIGA to FIs between 1990 and 2024, as well as the agency’s Sustainability Reports and Annual Reports, to find out what ‘green guarantees’ really means. It reveals several issues, including:

• Unclear use of proceeds. MIGA guarantees to FIs can free up capital for unspecified purposes, meaning it can support other investments, including fossil fuels.
• Fossil fuel loopholes in the Green Equity Approach (GEA) and Paris Alignment methodology also allow MIGA’s FI clients to invest in fossil fuel projects.

The report has examples of how MIGA guarantees have enabled:

1. AbsaBank and First Rand to invest in Mozambique LNG;
2. Santander to operate in Argentina, where it has expanded oil and gas projects in Vaca Muerta shale field;
3. Standard Chartered and LBBW to operate, both of which are still actively funding fossil fuels in several countries.

Guarantees are gaining importance in multilateral spaces. The COP29 and FFD4 outcome documents both highlight the role of guarantees in mobilising private sector investments to address development and climate challenges.

Published during the landmark Financing for Development Conference (FfD4) in Seville, and on the anniversary of so-called ‘Paris Alignment’, this report offers insights on the dangers of relying on private-sector first approach and what multilateral development banks can do to avoid supporting more fossil fuels.

The briefing is aimed at civil society organisations. In four pages, it explains everything you need to know about MIGA, guarantees, and the “de-risking disaster”: 

• What MIGA is and how its guarantees work;
• Political risk guarantees — with a case study from Indonesia;
• Capital optimisation guarantees — with a case study from Argentina;
• Non-honouring of public debt guarantees;
• What needs to change.