How much does the World Bank know about the climate action it claims to be taking?
Oxfam recognizes that many things in World Bank projects are subject to change during implementation. On average, the Bank’s actual spending on projects differs from the budgeted amount by 26 to 43 percent above and below the requested climate finance. For the entire climate finance portfolio from 2017 to 2023, this difference amounts to between USD 24.28 billion and USD 41.32 billion. Information is not available on what new climate change measures have been supported and which planned measures have been cut. At a time when the World Bank touts its focus on understanding and reporting the impacts of climate finance, it is difficult to fully understand at the project approval stage how much of what the Bank claims is climate finance is actually spent. Without understanding, it is actually impossible to track and measure the impact of the Bank’s climate co-benefits. The Bank should improve its reporting practices, conduct climate finance assessments for completed projects, standardize project climate finance reporting, and create a public climate finance database.
