By Vanora Bennett

Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have published a joint statement where they present concrete and urgent actions to scale up finance and enhance climate outcomes, strengthen country-level collaboration, and increase co-financing and private sector engagement. The announcement comes with world leaders are gathered at the COP28 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 

“The window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all is rapidly closing. Recognising the interlinkages between the twin crises of climate and nature, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the goals of the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework requires all of us to step up our efforts with urgency and scale,” the MDB statement said.

“This new joint statement builds on the ambition expressed in October 2023 in Marrakesh, when we committed to strengthening our collaboration with our clients,  development partners,  the private sector and with others, to reduce poverty and inequality, and address the dual climate and nature crises.  Acknowledging the calls from COP27 for increasing our climate ambition, we come to COP28 ready to build on the major progress and outcomes already delivered during this past year,” said EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso.

In the joint statement, MDBs reaffirm their commitment to socially inclusive, gender responsive and nature positive climate and development action, leveraging different mandates, unique country and client networks, operating models, geographies, and expertise. MDBs will achieve this through:

An increased focus on measuring climate results, outcomes and impact

Coordinated support for countries and sub-national entities to formulate and operationalise Long-term Strategies (LTS) 

Country-led platforms for impact

Attracting private capital at scale

Supporting enhanced efforts on adaptation and disaster risk management

The climate and ecological crises are intertwined with many other global challenges. MDBs therefore also commit to strengthen collaboration in line with MDB’s respective mandates and governance frameworks on nature, water, health and gender. 

The joint MDB statement announced today builds on their major progress and outcomes delivered to date.  

In 2022, MDBs provided record-levels of climate finance and private finance mobilisation. MDBs jointly committed US$ 61 billion of climate finance for low and middle-income economies, up 18 per cent from 2021; and close to US$ 100 billion across all countries where they work. In low- and middle-income countries, adaptation finance accounted for 37 per cent of this and their total climate co-finance reached US$ 46 billion, of which US$ 15 billion was private finance mobilisation.  

In addition, MDBs continue to work on aligning their activities with the Paris Agreement goals using their joint framework published at COP24. In particular, in 2023, MDBs published the Joint MDB Methodological Principles for Assessment of Paris Agreement Alignment of New Operations and are supporting just transition efforts in diverse contexts and regions. 

The EBRD, a leader in climate finance across central and eastern Europe, Central Asia and the southern and eastern Mediterranean, has fully aligned its operations with the goals of the Paris agreement and aims to make at least 50 per cent of its investment volumes green by 2025, a goal it has met for the past two years.