Up to €37 billion ($41 billion) in World Bank climate finance —nearly 40 percent of all climate funds disbursed by the Bank over the past seven years— is unaccounted for due to poor record-keeping practices. A new Oxfam report revealing the worrying figures has been published today ahead of the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Washington D.C.
An Oxfam audit of the World Bank’s 2017-2023 climate finance portfolio found that between €22 billion and €37 billion in climate finance went unaccounted for between the time projects were approved and when they closed.
There is no clear public record showing where this money went or how it was used, which makes any assessment of its impacts impossible. It also remains unclear whether these funds were even spent on climate-related initiatives intended to help low and middle-income countries protect people from the impacts of the climate crisis and invest in clean energy.
“The need for climate finance has never been greater. We see this daily with the millions of people in southern Africa needing food aid due to climate-induced drought and extreme weather events. All over the world climate change is causing conflict, forced migration and threatening the very survival of entire regions."
— Jim Clarken, Oxfam Ireland CEO
“However, everyone must be very clear where the money is going. Every cent intended for climate action must be fully traceable and effectively used to help the most vulnerable. We know that climate change disproportionately affects the world’s poorest countries who are dealing with a crisis not of their making."
“In advance of negotiations in Baku, we are calling on the Irish government to invest at the scale necessary to tackle the climate crisis but also to stitch in clear governance and transparency in the operation of these funds. Greater transparency is necessary if we are to support the communities who need this financing the most."
“The World Bank and indeed all global funders should act like our future depends on tackling the climate crisis because it does.”
The Bank is the largest multilateral provider of climate finance, accounting for 52 percent of the total flow from all multilateral development banks combined.
The issue of climate finance will take centre stage at this year’s COP in Azerbaijan. Countries are set to negotiate a new global climate finance goal, the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG).
Climate activists are demanding the Global North provide at least €4.6 trillion ($5 trillion) a year in public finance to the Global South. They say this would act as a down payment towards climate debt to the countries, people and communities of the Global South. People there are the least responsible for climate breakdown but are the most affected. Oxfam warns that the lack of traceable spending could undermine trust in global climate finance efforts at this critical juncture.
Oxfam’s investigation revealed that obtaining even basic information on how the World Bank is using climate finance was painstaking and difficult.
ENDS
Contact information
Clare Cronin, Head of Communications – Oxfam Ireland clare.cronin@oxfam.org +353 (0) 87 195 2551
“The need for climate finance has never been greater. We see this daily with the millions of people in southern Africa needing food aid due to climate-induced drought and extreme weather events. All over the world climate change is causing conflict, forced migration and threatening the very survival of entire regions."
