Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 21 June 2023 - The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have strategically outlined and jointly released the principles of how they will ensure alignment of financing the goals of the Paris Agreement – the culmination of work over the last five years to ensure a consistent and harmonized approach. The principles represent the outcome of work amongst the MDBs since the Paris Agreement was signed. MDBs committed to aligning their financial flows with the objectives of the Paris Agreement in 2017.

The published documents are a result of significant collective effort and provide clear guidance on how investment projects need to be structured and aligned with the Paris Agreements' climate goals. The MDBs' joint Paris Alignment approach aims to accelerate and support the successful transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient future by supporting clients to develop appropriate long-term development pathways in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement and aligning financial flows to them.

The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at COP21 in Paris on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. To ensure a consistent approach to the implementation of the Paris Alignment commitment, in 2019, the MDBs developed an approach for aligning activities with the Paris goals, with six building blocks: alignment with mitigation goals, adaptation and climate-resilient operations, accelerated contribution to the transition through climate finance, engagement and policy development support, reporting, and alignment of internal activities.

The principles have informed IsDB's own detailed implementation of its Paris alignment commitment. The IsDB has committed to have all its sovereign operations to be fully aligned with the objectives of the Paris Agreement by the end of 2023. MDBs will continue to work on climate action after the publication of this joint work, recognising the need to continue to refine approaches through implementation.

MDBs working together for the release of the joint principles are the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Council of Europe Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank Group, Islamic Development Bank, New Development Bank, and the World Bank Group.