Climate change and development bank project cycles

In the five years since the Paris Agreement, Development Finance Institutions have made various commitments to aligning their operations with climate change goals. In this report, authors analyze the extent to which those official commitments and principles have become manifest in the regular project cycle operations of a presentative sample of DFIs operating across the globe.

Key points

One key finding of this report is that some stages of the project cycle, as currently conducted, are inherently more conductive to mainstreaming climate change than others. In particular the screening, scoping, impact and risk assessment, mitigation, the monitoring and reporting stages of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) process provide ample opportunities to consider climate change.

On the other hand, such processes as information disclosure at the early stages of the impact and risk assessment, along with stakeholder consultation during the assessment, and grievance mechanisms are less conducive to integrating climate change, but can be modified to improve mainstreaming of climate–related impacts and risks.