IFC announces it will stop clients funding new coal projects

(IFC, Washington, no date 2023) One of the key goals of the Paris Agreement is to ensure that financial flows are consistent with a pathway toward low emissions and climate resilient development. In 2020, The International Finance Corporation (IFC) the World Bank’s private sector arm launched the Green Equity Approach (GEA) to help our financial institution (FI) clients continue to do business in a changing world. This year (2023) IFC, is taking the next step toward alignment with Paris Agreement ambitions by introducing an update to the GEA under which IFC will start requiring a commitment from FI clients to not originate and finance any new coal projects. Previous policy allowed the IFC’s financial clients to support new coal projects as long as they exited coal by 2030, but new update explicitly rules out new coal. However Re-Course notes that the IFC still has a fossil fuel addiction. In the year when the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) are finally aligning their portfolios with the Paris Agreement, over seven years after the Agreement itself was made, it is time for change. [ECA Watch can only hope the OECD and all ECAs could move quickly in this direction for all fossil fuel project credits and insurance.]