Awareness of fossil fuel legal risk spreads across MDBs

Pressure on the multilateral development banks to stop financing fossil fuel energy is sharpening, as a group of civil society organisations is forcing them to notice their responsibilities under international law – which the CSOs believe means not harming the climate.

Bank Climate Advocates led other CSOs on Tuesday in writing to the presidents and general counsels of the African Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, European Investment Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, arguing that all their climate and environmental policies fall "severely short" of what international law requires.

Bank Climate Advocates and 33 partner organisations, which include the Climate Reality Project America Latina, Accountability Counsel, Urgewald, Recourse, Equitable Cambodia and IBON International, now see international law as a way to hold MDBs to account for the laxities and gaps in their policies and implementation of them, by establishing a clear standard.

Read the full article from GlobalCapital here.