Development banks put on strained show of unity on climate, SDGs

BRUSSELS — Hundreds of public development banks pledged to “align” with the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris climate accord at a first-of-its-kind summit Thursday, though organizers admitted there is not yet consensus on what that means.

In the nonbinding “Finance in Common” joint declaration, signatories — including associations of development finance institutions and some but not all multilateral lenders — committed to “align our activities with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.” To do this, the banks will “strive to develop, operationalize and scale-up strategies and methodologies of alignment in the perspective of COP26.”

However, an earlier draft seen by Devex was clearer on the need to align financial flows with the Paris Agreement “by COP26” in November 2021. In addition, some key institutions, including the World Bank, failed to sign up to even the diluted final text.

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