Correcting the World's Greatest Market Failure

This report by the World Resources Institute analyzes the failure of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to systematically integrate climate change considerations into their strategies and project development, particularly within the energy sector.

• Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have failed to systematically incorporate climate risk and emission mitigation into their project development, with over 60 percent of energy sector financing ignoring climate change entirely.
• To address the market failure of climate change, MDBs must internalize environmental and social costs by measuring GHG emissions, revising country and sector strategies to include climate vulnerability, increasing support for low carbon technologies in emerging economies, and improving staff incentives and government capacity for good governance.
• A World Resources Institute analysis conducted prior to the 2005 G8 Gleneagles Summit revealed that less than 20 percent of the World Bank's energy sector lending had considered climate change.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Correcting the World's Greatest Market Failure. https://www.wri.org/research/correcting-worlds-greatest-market-failure

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Correcting the World's Greatest Market Failure. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/correcting-worlds-greatest-market-failure.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Correcting the World's Greatest Market Failure |url=https://www.wri.org/research/correcting-worlds-greatest-market-failure |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendcorrecting, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Correcting the World's Greatest Market Failure}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/correcting-worlds-greatest-market-failure}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }