In a new analysis released on Wednesday, Oxfam reported that almost 40% of World Bank climate financing over the previous seven years is currently missing, attributing the problem to inadequate record-keeping.
According to an Oxfam audit conducted on the development lender’s climate finance portfolio from 2017 to 2023, there was a $41 billion missing from the portfolio “between the time projects were approved and when they closed.”
Oxfam’s Washington office head Kate Donald said in a statement, “The Bank is quick to brag about its climate finance billions – but these numbers are based on what it plans to spend, not on what it actually spends once a project gets rolling.”
The Oxfam audit found there was “no clear public record” of where the money went, making it impossible to assess its impact — or whether the funds were actually spent on climate-related activities, as promised.
“With this level of information, it is impossible to determine whether the Bank is truly stepping up its climate investments,” the report’s authors said.
With the intention of reforming the eighty-year-old Washington-based organisation, Ajay Banga, the new president of the World Bank, entered office last year and has sought to increase the bank’s climate financing commitment.
Since then, the Bank has pledged to increase the percentage of its yearly financing allocated to adapting to climate change from 35 to 45 percent, beginning in the July-starting fiscal year 2025.
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