Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 3 December 2023: Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have published a joint statement where they present concrete and urgent actions to scale up finance and enhance climate outcomes measurement, strengthen country-level collaboration, and increase co-financing and private sector engagement. The announcement comes as world leaders are gathering at the COP28 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

“The window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all is rapidly closing. Recognising the interlinkages between the triple planetary crises of climate, nature, and pollution, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the goals of the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) requires all of us to step up our efforts with urgency and scale,” the MDB statement said.

Commenting on the report, Islamic Development Bank President H.E. Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser said that as a south-south multilateral development bank, IsDB member countries face the complex challenge of reducing poverty and addressing the impacts of climate change. "We recognize that these are not separate issues but interlinked aspects of our sustainable development, which needs to be addressed fairly and inclusively to ensure a just transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy. That is why we are committed to taking bold and ambitious actions to support our member countries' efforts towards these goals and commitments and ensure that no one is left behind. We are not doing this alone, but in partnership with the international community, especially those who share our development vision." Dr. Al Jasser emphasized. 

In the joint statement, MDBs reaffirm their commitment to socially inclusive, gender responsive and nature positive climate and development action, leveraging different mandates, unique country and client networks, operating models, geographies, and expertise. MDBs will achieve this through:

• An increased focus on measuring climate results, outcomes and impact
• Coordinated support for countries and sub-national entities to formulate and operationalise Long-term Strategies (LTS)
• Country level collaboration
• Attracting private capital at scale
• Supporting enhanced efforts on adaptation and disaster risk management

The climate and ecological crises are intertwined with many other global challenges. MDBs therefore also commit to strengthen collaboration in line with MDB respective mandates and governance frameworks on nature, water, health and gender.

The joint MDB statement announced today builds on their major progress and outcomes delivered to date.  In 2022, MDBs provided record-levels of climate finance and private finance mobilization. MDBs jointly committed $61 billion of climate finance for low and middle-income economies, up 18% from 2021; and close to $100 billion in all economies where we operate. In low- and middle-income countries, adaptation finance accounted for 37% of this and total climate co-finance reached $46 billion, of which $15 billion was private finance mobilization.

In addition, MDBs continue to work on aligning their activities with the Paris Agreement goals using their joint framework published at COP24. In particular, in 2023, MDBs published the Joint MDB Methodological Principles for Assessment of Paris Agreement Alignment of New operations and are supporting just transition efforts in diverse contexts and regions.

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