Executive Summary

The report critiques the AIIB's Climate-Focused Policy-Based Financing (CPBF) instrument, arguing that it contains significant loopholes regarding fossil fuel finance and lacks robust safeguards for human rights and gender equality. Based on an analysis of programmes in Brazil and Bangladesh, the authors find that while CPBF loans are counted as 100% climate finance, the funds are fungible and not tracked for specific climate outcomes. The document recommends banning all fossil fuel finance, strengthening the Project-affected Peoples’ Mechanism (PPM), and aligning Paris alignment methodologies strictly with the 1.5°C goal.

• The CPBF framework contains loopholes that may allow funds to support fossil fuel expansion, as AIIB policies only fully prohibit coal finance and the funds themselves are fungible.
• There is a lack of transparency and traceability in climate finance accounting; although CPBF loans are recorded as 100% climate finance based on 'prior actions', the AIIB does not track the actual use of funds or their resulting climate outcomes.
• The AIIB's accountability and safeguarding mechanisms are insufficient for CPBF, with most of the Environmental & Social Framework not applying and high barriers preventing complaints from being accepted by the Project-affected Peoples’ Mechanism (PPM) since 2019.
• The CPBF-supported plans in Brazil and Bangladesh promote 'false solutions' such as carbon markets, biofuels, waste-to-energy, and carbon capture, which the report associates with risks of pollution and rights violations.
• Gender integration within CPBF programmes is described as superficial, with the AIIB's Gender Action Plan remaining non-binding and failing to address potential harms.

APA

Race, M. (2026). Executive Summary. Recourse. https://re-course.org/newsupdates/aiib-cpbf/

Chicago

Race, Madeleine. Executive Summary. Recourse, 2026. https://re-course.org/newsupdates/aiib-cpbf/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Race |first1=Madeleine |title=Executive Summary |publisher=Recourse |date=23 September 2026 |url=https://re-course.org/newsupdates/aiib-cpbf/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{race2026executive, author = {Race, Madeleine}, title = {{Executive Summary}}, institution = {Recourse}, year = {2026}, month = sep, url = {https://re-course.org/newsupdates/aiib-cpbf/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }