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

This briefing by the World Resources Institute evaluates the progress of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) in aligning their financial flows with the Paris Agreement. While a framework has been outlined, the authors argue that MDBs lack specific implementation dates, clear assessment criteria for mitigation and adaptation, and standardized reporting metrics.

• Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have a slow implementation timeline for Paris alignment, with full implementation not expected until 2023 or 2024. The current approach initially applies only to new direct investment lending operations, excluding existing portfolios and delaying the evaluation of policy-based lending and intermediated finance until 2021 or 2022.
• Most MDBs have not established a hard deadline to cease financing non-aligned projects, nor have they made Paris alignment a mandatory requirement for project approval. The European Investment Bank is noted as an exception regarding the announcement of a date, though it still finances "Projects of Common Interest" regardless of alignment.
• The mitigation alignment framework is considered vague because MDBs have not disclosed the contents of their positive and negative screening lists or the specific benchmarks and criteria used to assess sector-specific pathways and local country contexts.
• The framework for adaptation and resilience lacks sufficient guidance for project teams, specifically failing to define "resilience opportunities" or the necessary steps for a "robust assessment of physical climate risks."
• MDBs lack a disclosed timeline and a set of exact metrics for reporting on alignment status. There is currently no clarity on whether the banks 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} }