Public Financial Institutions' Climate Commitments

The report finds that public financial institutions are lagging behind private counterparts in setting credible climate targets. While some Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) show leadership, national and subnational development banks, as well as institutions in non-OECD countries, have very few Paris-aligned or net-zero commitments. Key barriers include a lack of government guidance and insufficient accountability mechanisms within global coalitions.

• A small minority of the largest public financial institutions have set high-ambition mitigation targets; only 20 institutions, representing 25% of tracked assets, have established net zero or Paris alignment targets.
• Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) lead in climate commitments, whereas other public financial institutions, particularly national and subnational development banks, are falling behind. National development banks make up 53% of the sample but only 11% of Paris-aligned or net-zero targets.
• Climate finance and sustainability goals are the most common type of commitment, but they frequently lack the sectoral or geographical specificity needed to direct capital to high-need areas.
• There is a critical shortage of explicit commitments to climate adaptation finance. Only six institutions have set goals mentioning adaptation, and all but one (the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development of India) are MDBs.
• Fossil fuel divestment is limited in scope; only nine institutions have pledged to phase out all fossil fuel financing without exception, and many other policies contain caveats.
• Institutional integration of climate goals is slow, with only 54% of the sample having a standalone climate strategy. Most of these strategies are found in global institutions or those in OECD countries.
• Global coalitions like the IDFC and Finance in Common often produce high-level ambitions that institutions fail to codify into specific, quantifiable internal strategies.
• A significant gap exists between national government climate policies and the commitments of their respective public financial institutions; 33 national institutions operate in countries with net-zero policies, but only four have their own net-zero or Paris-aligned targets.

APA

Pastor, A. O., Pinko, N., Chin, N., & Tonkonogy, B. (2022). Public Financial Institutions' Climate Commitments. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/public-financial-institutions-climate-commitments.pdf

Chicago

Pastor, Angela Ortega, Nicole Pinko, Neil Chin, and Bella Tonkonogy. Public Financial Institutions' Climate Commitments. Climate Policy Initiative, 2022. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/public-financial-institutions-climate-commitments.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Pastor |first1=Angela Ortega |last2=Pinko |first2=Nicole |last3=Chin |first3=Neil |last4=Tonkonogy |first4=Bella |title=Public Financial Institutions' Climate Commitments |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=October 2022 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/public-financial-institutions-climate-commitments.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{pastor2022public, author = {Pastor, Angela Ortega and Pinko, Nicole and Chin, Neil and Tonkonogy, Bella}, title = {{Public Financial Institutions' Climate Commitments}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2022}, month = oct, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/public-financial-institutions-climate-commitments.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }