INSIDER: Multilateral Development Banks Have Made Progress Towards Paris Alignment, but Still Need to Fill in Critical Details

Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have established a framework for Paris alignment but face criticism for slow implementation timelines, vague mitigation criteria, and insufficient guidance on adaptation and resilience. The authors argue that MDBs must set firm dates for ending unaligned financing, publish clear positive and negative investment lists based on science, and adopt standardized reporting metrics to ensure transparency and effectiveness.

• MDBs are implementing their Paris alignment approach too slowly, with full implementation not expected until 2023 or 2024. Current frameworks initially apply only to new direct investment lending, ignoring existing portfolios and delaying the evaluation of policy-based lending and intermediated finance until 2021 or 2022.
• Most MDBs have not committed to making Paris alignment a mandatory requirement for project approval, meaning they can still approve non-aligned projects. The European Investment Bank is the only one to have announced a date for financing only aligned projects, though it still makes exceptions for "Projects of Common Interest".
• The mitigation framework lacks transparency and detail, specifically regarding the 'positive and negative lists' used to screen investments and the sector-specific benchmarks applied to assess alignment.
• The framework for adaptation and resilience is considered insufficient because it fails to define 'resilience opportunities' or specify the necessary steps for a 'robust assessment of physical climate risks'.
• MDBs have not yet disclosed the specific metrics or the timeline they will use for reporting on alignment status, nor is it clear if they will use a shared reporting approach.

APA

World Resources Institute (2020). INSIDER: Multilateral Development Banks Have Made Progress Towards Paris Alignment, but Still Need to Fill in Critical Details. https://www.wri.org/technical-perspectives/insider-multilateral-development-banks-have-made-progress-towards-paris-alignment-still

Chicago

World Resources Institute. INSIDER: Multilateral Development Banks Have Made Progress Towards Paris Alignment, but Still Need to Fill in Critical Details. 2020. https://www.wri.org/technical-perspectives/insider-multilateral-development-banks-have-made-progress-towards-paris-alignment-still.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=INSIDER: Multilateral Development Banks Have Made Progress Towards Paris Alignment, but Still Need to Fill in Critical Details |date=19 March 2020 |url=https://www.wri.org/technical-perspectives/insider-multilateral-development-banks-have-made-progress-towards-paris-alignment-still |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2020insider, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{INSIDER: Multilateral Development Banks Have Made Progress Towards Paris Alignment, but Still Need to Fill in Critical Details}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2020}, month = mar, url = {https://www.wri.org/technical-perspectives/insider-multilateral-development-banks-have-made-progress-towards-paris-alignment-still}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }