BCA IN THE NEWS
Five more MDBs receive scholars’ opinion saying international law requires high climate standards
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.
Despite the MDBs’ green and sustainable bond issuance and efforts to finance clean development including infrastructure such as renewable power plants, the CSOs allege they are still putting money into projects which lead to high greenhouse gas emissions, such as liquefied natural gas terminals, pipelines and gas power stations. The letters follow similar ones sent to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on January 9 and the World Bank, International Finance Corp and Asian Development Bank...
March 5, 2026, Jon Hay, Global Capital (click here to view article)
The opinion argues major multilateral lenders —and their shareholder governments — risk violating international law if they continue financing fossil fuel projects.
A coalition of civil society organizations is calling on four major multilateral development banks to meet their climate obligations, citing a new independent legal opinion that argues the institutions — and their shareholder governments — could be breaching international law by financing fossil fuel-related projects. The opinion, written by scholars Johanna Aleria P. Lorenzo and Jolene Lin in November, comes just months after the International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion in July 2025 affirming that states have a legal duty to protect the climate system from greenhouse gas emissions, establishing that such obligations exist under international law regardless of treaty participation...
“[The opinion] is the first to address the legal obligations of multilateral development banks and their member states to act on climate change,” Jason Weiner, the executive director and legal director of Bank Climate Advocates, which commissioned the legal work, told Devex. “We see this as a watershed moment for climate ambition at MDBs.”...
March 5, 2026, Jesse Chase-Lubitz, Devex (click here for article)
First-of-its-kind opinion lays out World Bank, ADB and shareholders’ obligations under international law
Two legal scholars have written a detailed opinion, affirming that multilateral development banks - and governments acting as their shareholders - are obliged under international law to make every effort to avoid financing development projects with high greenhouse gas emissions. This duty requires them to use the “best available science” to assess the climate impacts of projects, which essentially means excluding fossil fuel investments in all but exceptional cases, the opinion argues. The 44 page document was sent on November 13 to the Asian Development Bank and four days later to the International Finance Corp and World Bank, as part of a multi-year campaign by NGOs to stop them financing climate-harming infrastructure such as gas-fired power stations and liquefied natural gas terminals, which can prolong the use of fossil fuels. Over 20 NGOs and NGO alliances, led by San Francisco-based Bank Climate Advocates, have also sent the opinions to all the executive directors on the MDBs’ boards who represent their member countries...
Nov. 19, 2025, Jon Hay, Global Capital (click here to view article)
News Podcast on 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
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...
Click here for Nov. 21, 2025 Global Capital News Podcast Segment by Jon Hay (starts at minute 12:44)
International Court of Justice Ruling Clarifies World Bank Group's Obligations
Civil society groups are hoping an opinion from the International Court of Justice will force the World Bank Group to carry out more thorough due diligence on projects with high carbon emissions and cut down its financing of fossil fuel infrastructure. Bank Climate Advocates, a US NGO that has been leading an engagement on this issue for several years, wrote to leaders of the World Bank Group on October 10, requesting that they explain their response to the ICJ opinion ....
Oct. 15, 2025, Jon Hay, Global Capital (click here to view article)
ADB’s Energy Policy is Rushing Toward the Wrong Side of History
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 (click here to read)
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. At a time when climate change is hitting the region’s most vulnerable the hardest, ADB appears to be weakening its climate commitments—quietly, and dangerously...
International Finance Corp does not release assessments of whether lower-carbon alternative projects would be viable
An NGO is suing the US Treasury for failing to disclose the environmental analysis that allowed the International Finance Corp to finance 13 projects in developing countries that it says will cause high greenhouse gas emissions. The legally innovative suit by Bank Climate Advocates was filed ...
July 11, 2025, Jon Hay, Global Capital (click here to view article)
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.
October 30, 2024, Adva Saldinger, Devex,
(view web version here or PDF version here)
The World Bank launched a one-stop guarantee shop. Here’s how it’s going
In a bid to increase private capital flows to the countries where it works the World Bank Group is streamlining and scaling its guarantee business. Some civil society organizations have raised concerns about scaling up MIGA, citing instances where it has not always adhered to its own environmental, social, and disclosure rules.
November 26, 2024, Adva Saldinger, Devex,
(view PDF version here or web version here)
Emitting hot air. If you can’t accurately measure a problem, can you really fight it? The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation gets chastised by its independent watchdog
October 31, 2024, Anna Gawel , Devex,
(view PDF version here or web version here)
CAO report finds IFC non-compliant with its own GHG emissions obligations
CAO report substantiates civil society findings about IFC’s failure to comply with its own requirements for GHG emissions measurement, alternatives analysis, mitigation and disclosure.
Winter 2024 Edition, Bretton Woods Observer,
Civil society raises concerns of widespread IFC noncompliance with its own Performance Standards on greenhouse gas emissions.
New analysis by Bank Climate Advocates of 300 projects found IFC failed to follow its own guidelines on ‘emissions quantification, alternatives analysis, mitigation, disclosure and affected communities impact assessment’.
October 4, 2023, Bretton Woods Observer,