Bankers doing up BS

Welcome to The Strawman, the daily climate newsletter that apparently has a clearer link to solving climate change than 99% of the World Bank’s climate projects. Wait what?

Today we’re diving in to what is at best incompetence, and at worst is greenwashing of the highest degree. Where the World Bank sits on this scale is for you to decide.

Let’s dive in.

What Does the World Bank Do Anyway?

It’s kinda in the name - it’s a bank for the world. Owned by 187 countries, the role of the World Bank is to reduce poverty by lending money to poorer countries, hopefully improving the standard of living for their people.

Damn. That’s a mission statement that’s kinda like a puppy. You can’t hate on it without being a bad person.

Practically, the Bank funds a tonne of projects from across the world - and one of its big aims is helping finance projects that have the potential to help with the climate change problem.

That should be a whole lotta money going towards the good stuff right?

Where's the Climate Connection?

Research has found that hundreds of these World Bank-backed projects have as much connection to the climate as I do to my New Year's resolution to go to the gym - it's tenuous at best.

A report released by the Center for Global Development and the Breakthrough Institute puts it bluntly: a “plain reading” of the World Bank’s project documents “sheds no light on why they are labelled as climate change projects”.

Looking beyond the headline, it makes sense why. Projects like improving teaching quality in Mexico, improving healthcare access in Chad, and payment automation in Afghanistan all sound great - but claiming these are helping the climate?

Smells like something that starts with B and ends with T if you ask me.

Moving towards transparency

The World Bank, of course, argues that they integrate climate objectives into their broader development lending - but without clear evidence or measures of the climate benefits of these projects, we're left in the dark.

To get serious about its climate goals, the World Bank needs to pull out a stronger climate lens and really focus on projects with tangible climate benefits. Transparency and consistency in their reporting are key.

See you again tomorrow,

The Strawman