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. While such legal opinions are not binding, they provide expert legal analysis and are relied upon by the addressee to make informed decisions.
“[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.”
About the author
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
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