The world's six multilateral development banks on Thursday reaffirmed their commitment to reinforce and further develop climate financing through a joint statement issued in advance of the United Nations Secretary-General's Climate Summit to be convened in New York on Sept. 23.
The African Development Bank (AfDB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and World Bank Group (WBG) together pledged to maintain a strong institutional focus on climate change.
This will include leveraging additional private sector investment, continuing to innovate and promote more robust and transparent climate finance tracking and reporting.
"As the EU bank we share the commitment of other multilateral development banks to enabling climate related investment in developing countries and continually seek to share experience from across all our areas of operation," said Jonathan Taylor, European Investment Bank Vice President responsible for climate action.
Since they began jointly tracking climate finance flows in 2011, the six multilateral development banks have delivered nearly 75 billion U.S. dollars in financing to help developing countries and emerging economies respond to the challenges of climate change. On average, about 80 percent of this lending has supported investment in mitigation activities and 20 percent to adaptation.
The statement also confirmed the intention of the multilateral development banks to count and track climate finance investments in the same way. This is expected to enable greater cooperation and shared experience between the banks and other financial bodies involved in climate action.