News Excerpt:

The Spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) held last week, but not without sparking key debates. Amid the world’s “polycrisis” of increased poverty, food shortages, energy shocks, debt crises, climate change, inflation, and war, the discussions revolved around reforming the global financial architecture.

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• The Development Committee issued a statement acknowledging the heavy debt burdens and constrained fiscal space of many developing countries, leaving limited resources to build climate resilience.
• Eleven wealthy countries pledged $11 billion for funding World Bank’s three new financing tools aimed towards de-risking its programmes, attracting private-sector investments and boosting lending capacity. 
• The Liveable Planet Fund, 
• Portfolio guarantee platform
• A hybrid capital instrument, 

• Despite commitments to align with the Paris Agreement, the World Bank continues to finance fossil fuels.
  • In its ‘Paris Alignment Methodology’, the World Bank committed to aligning 100 percent of its operations.
  • 85 percent of the operations of its private sector arms – International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.
  • It promotes natural gas as a transition fuel despite mounting evidence questioning its cleanliness.
• The World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) replenishment, a source of concessional financing for low-income countries, The World Bank President  has called for raising $30 billion in contributions to IDA. 
  • A substantial portion of this money would be directed towards climate finance, since the World Bank has committed 45 per cent of its funds towards climate projects.
• The G20 Finance Ministerial discussions focused on taxation of the super-rich, coordinating international tax initiatives, and climate challenges, with the creation of the 'Taskforce CLIMA' by the Brazilian G20 presidency.