Recourse at COP28: Public finance to keep 1.5C alive

Recourse at COP28: What MDBs should deliver

COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber has told the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) that they should work together to help “lay the foundation of a climate finance architecture that is more fit-for-purpose to address climate and development”, with three priorities: “country platforms, revise climate finance targets for coming years, and lower the risk for the private sector”.

But Recourse at COP28, in solidarity with our partners, warns the MDBs that climate solutions will not be found by chasing the profit-motivated private sector or through debt-laden loans. The MDBs must instead provide grant and concessional finance for a sustainable renewable energy future for all.

For effective climate action we call on the MDBs to commit at COP28 to:

• Keep 1.5oC alive, by ending all finance to fossil coal, oil, and gas, and instead banking on clean renewable energy.
• Put local civil society and communities at the centre of development decision-making.
• Ensure all energy investments, including supply chains, protect human rights, promote gender justice and defend the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
• Prioritise renewable energy to deliver national energy needs, including appropriate and affordable energy access.

At COP28 it is time for the wealthy nations of the world to commit their fair share of climate finance for mitigation and adaptation; and to additionally to capitalise the Loss and Damage Fund. But the World Bank is not the right institution to host the fund, therefore terms for exit from World Bank and to establish independent hosting must be fixed and accountable to the UNFCCC.

See publications by Recourse and partners launched for COP28:

• Recourse Briefing: What the MDBs must do at COP28
• Tread lightly: Why IFIs should put people and the environment at the centre of the transition mineral supply chain by Recourse and Trend Asia
• The Technical Assistance Paradox – How the World Bank Group and ADB’s advisory services are “assisting” dependency on fossil gas by Recourse, Senik Centre Asia, Trend Asia and Indus Consortium
• Still Bankrolling Climate Change: How MDBs Support Fossil Gas through Financial Intermediary Investments by Recourse, Big Shift, Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network (CLEAN) and Don’t Gas Africa
• Smoke and Mirrors? An analysis of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s updated Energy Sector Strategy one year on by Recourse, BRICS Feminist Watch, Latinoamerica Sustentable, APMDD and CLEAN
• Surviving the Surge: Policy solution for a better tomorrow by Indus Consortium and Oxfam

See also some of Recourse’s recent publications on climate and energy issues:

• Slipping Through the Net: Paris alignment and the missed opportunity for MDBs to stop funding fossil fuels by Recourse, Inclusive Development International, BankTrack, Trend Asia and Philippine Movement for Climate Justice
• How IFC’s Support for Captive Coal in Nickel Industrial Park is Destroying OBI Island by Trend Asia, Bank Climate Advocates and Recourse
• Gas Does Not Equal Development: Why public finance for fossil gas is not the solution for women in Asia and Africa by Recourse, Indus Consortium, CLEAN, BRICS Feminist Watch, GenderAction, the Big Shift Global and Don’t Gas Africa
• Exploring Geothermal Energy Development in Indonesia: Policy Failures and Impacts on Women’s Rights by Recourse and Solidaritas Perempuan
• The Taiba N’Diaye Wind Farm in Senegal: Renewable Energy for Whom? by Recourse and Lumière Synergie pour le Développement
• The New ‘Energy El Dorado’? The World Bank’s Role in Promoting Green Hydrogen in Chile by Recourse and Sustentarse
• Blind Spots: Green Transition and IMF’s Economic Surveillance by GFLAC, Recourse and Trend Asia
• Blowing Smoke: How coal finance is flowing through the IFC’s Paris Alignment loopholes by Inclusive Development International, Recourse and Trend Asia
• No Paris: How the AIIB’s Paris alignment methodology fails the people and the climate by Recourse, BRICS Feminist Watch, Latinoamerica Sustentable and CLEAN