Why go small when you can go big in committing your multilateral development institute to concur with climate change? This is the exact intent of nine presidents of major financial institutions, amongst them the African Development Bank, the World Bank Group*, the New Development Bank, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. They all gave their vows to the international community in an article entitled “A Truly Global Response to Climate Change” released in mid-December 2017. Stating that “Today’s political climate is uncertain. But climate change is not”, the presidents declared their intent to tackle climate impact with monetary measurements and commitments on various levels. This could be summarized as ensuring the world that they and their clients will put climate actions at the center of attention and the forefront of what they engage in.

Linking their past and present work with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals they hope to integrate climate change actions so as to boost further development in new technologies and pair it with water and energy policies. With their past investments of $27 billion in climate activities in the mirror (2016) the multilateral development banks plan to scale up and further engage in both the private and public finance sectors. Read the full statement here. A commentary made by the European Investment Bank referring to the article can be found on their page.

* The World Bank Group has already made their contribution on their own, which is covered in this article.