MDBs call for “expansion and acceleration of climate action”

Joint statement of multilateral development banks at COP26 in Glasgow

As driving forces in supporting emerging markets and developing countries tackle the climate crisis multilateral development banks (MDBs) including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), are calling for “a significant expansion and acceleration of climate action across countries and economic sectors” in a joint statement issued at the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow today.

The banks warn that “climate change and the parallel crisis of environmental degradation

are threatening to reverse years of development progress”. They welcome “growing ambition reflected in the new Nationally Determined Contributions” by governments and offer the MDBs’ support for “the delivery of these plans in developing countries, building on our track records of supporting low-carbon, climate-resilient and nature-based solutions for sustainable development.”

EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso said: “We are at the COP26 conference in Glasgow to support progress towards a low-carbon and net-zero economy and to demonstrate our capacity and readiness to deliver. The stakes could not be higher and we have to act now. MDBs have the capital and the know-how to make a difference. The EBRD will increase the proportion of its green investments to more than 50 per cent of annual investment by 2025. We will align all our operations with the goals of the Paris Agreement by the start of 2023. And we aim to double mobilisation of private-sector climate finance by 2025.”

The joint statement was signed by the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Council of Europe Development Bank, the EBRD, the European Investment Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank Group, the Islamic Development Bank, the New Development Bank and the World Bank Group.