Driving Systemic Change in Finance Through Law to Help Save the World from Global Warming

November 19, 2025  – Bank Climate Advocates (BCA) and  21 CSOs issued requests to World Bank Group (WBG), Asian Development Bank (ADB)  and their member states (1) transmitting Drs. Lorenzo and Lin's Authoritative Legal Opinion that BCA commissioned, and (2) requesting WBG, ADB, and their member states amend their suite of climate change policies to align with their climate change legal obligations under international law as the Opinion Provides.  

Click Here for Global Capital Article by Jon Hay

Click Here for Drs. Lorenzo and Lin's  Legal Opinion on the Climate Change Obligations of IFC, IBRD, ADB and their Member States Under International Law

Click Here for BCA Press Release  

Click Here for BCA & 15  CSOs' WBG Letter 

 Click Here for BCA & 17 CSOs' Letter to ADB

 Podcast Highlights Importance of the Scholars' MDB Legal Climate Opinion that Bank Climate Advocates (BCA) Commissioned, and what BCA is Doing to Align MDBs & their Member States with their Climate Change Legal Obligations

Click here for Nov. 21, 2025 Global Capital Podcast Segment by Jon Hay (starts at minute 12:44):   Meanwhile, an NGO in the US is applying pressure to multilateral development banks to change the way they assess energy project financing to consider environmental factors. We explain why the legal opinion the campaign has generated matters, what it says and how MDBs may react...

October 10, 2025 – World Bank Annual Board Meetings – Bank Climate Advocates (BCA) issued World Bank Group (WBG) and its member states a formal request for immediate corrective action: to amend WBG’s policies to meet its and its member states’ stringent climate change obligations under international that were crystalized in July 2025 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Climate Change Advisory Opinion 

Click Here for Global Capital Article by Jon Hay

Click Here for BCA Press Release  calling on the WBG to Break its Silence on ICJ Climate Advisory Opinion & Amend Policies 

August 11, 2025 -  Asia Times Op-ed by Jason Weiner, Executive & Legal Director, Bank Climate Advocates & Nazareth Del Pilar, Just Transitions Advocacy Officer, NGO Forum on ADB: Asian Development Bank (ADB) calls itself the “climate bank of Asia and the Pacific.” But with its proposed changes to its Energy Policy, it risks betraying that title.. 

Click here to read Asia Times Op-ed 

Click here for BCA's and 13 CSOs' July Climate Change Comments on the Legal Deficiencies in ADB's 2025 Energy Review Process 

July 11  2025 –  BCA's  Case Against the United States Department of Treasury Seeks to Compel Release of Documents Detailing Routine Failures of International Finance Corporation (IFC) and its Member State Shareholders to Adhere to their Climate Change Requirements 

Click Here for Global Capital Article by Jon Hay

📆  September 25, 2025 from 9:00 – 10:15 a.m. EST @ Yale Club of NY City  

💡 🔎   International organizations like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and the International Maritime Organization hold enormous power over the world’s climate future. Expect a rigorous discussion examining how international organizations are aligning their policies, financing and regulatory actions with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C target, and what international law requires that organizations and their member states do to address the climate crisis.   More info click here 

🔥  🌍  Co-organized by Bank Climate Advocates (BCA)  & Yale Planetary Solutions

🎤 Featuring leading voices in climate governance:  BCA's Jason Weiner, Camila Bustos,  Baine Kerr & Daniel Esty (moderator)  

📝 Register to join us in person by clicking here 

October 30, 2024 - IFC has made climate a central part of its mission, but the way that it measures and manages greenhouse gas emissions in its investments could use work, according to the new report. 

by Adva Saldinger, Devex, (view web version here or PDF version here)

January 17, 2025 – Today, BCA submitted a letter on behalf of 28 organizations requesting IFC to Implement Its Independent Accountability Mechanism's (CAO's) determinations of IFC’s climate change policy requirements. The CAO Opinion (1) confirms BCA's interpretations of IFC’s obligations under its own board adopted policies in regards to GHG emissions quantification, alternatives analysis, and mitigation for each IFC investment prior to its financing decision, (2) establishes IFC is failing to adhere to these requirements, and (3) substantiates Bank Climate Advocates’ (BCA’s) findings demonstrating IFC’s systematic non-compliance with these policies across 350 IFC direct investments and IFC’s entire portfolio from 2012 to the present.  

Click here for BCA and 27 CSOs Request to IFC 

February 14, 2025 - BCA has submitted a Request asking MIGA to adhere to its climate change policies and to strengthen them  on behalf of 19 organizations. The Request (1) documents MIGA's systematic failures to adhere to its board adopted policies applicable to climate change across 60 direct, financial intermediary, and trade finance investments; (2) asks MIGA to adhere to its accountability mechanism's interpretation of MIGA's board adopted policy requirements applicable to climate change and MIGA's additional policy requirements; and (3) to improve its climate change policies and their implementation to come into alignment with MIGA's and its shareholders' obligations under international law.

Click here for BCA's and 18 CSOs' February 2025  Request to MIGA

Click here for the November 2024 Devex Article Covering the Unveiling of BCA's Groundbreaking Data Evidencing MIGA's Systematic Failures to Adhere to its Policy Requirements Applicable to GHG Emissions Quantification, Alternatives Analysis, Mitigation, and Disclosure Before Issuing Guarantees