US Pushes World Bank to Drop Climate Lending Targets at Spring Meetings

The World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings concluded on April 18, 2026, in Washington with the United States openly calling for the expiry of the Bank's second Climate Change Action Plan, under which 45 per cent of all lending is directed toward climate activities. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent labelled the plan nonsensical and myopic, while France and the European Union expressed support for its continuation.

The IMF's World Economic Outlook projected global growth declining to 3.1 per cent in 2026, with the slowdown more pronounced in emerging economies amid disrupted supply chains from the West Asia conflict. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said even the most hopeful scenario involves a growth downgrade. The World Bank used the meetings to spotlight its Water Forward platform, targeting water security for one billion people by 2030, and AgriConnect, pledging to double agribusiness investment to $9 billion annually.

The US, as the Bank's largest shareholder, carries significant leverage over the institution's climate lending direction. The second Climate Change Action Plan is slated to expire in June 2026, and 19 of 25 executive directors had previously issued a joint statement supporting its continuation. The potential discontinuation risks slowing renewable energy project financing at a time when the modest $300 billion climate finance target agreed at COP29 in Baku in 2024 already falls far short of developing-country demands.

On the sidelines, finance ministers from climate-vulnerable nations launched the Borrowers' Platform on April 15, noting that low- and middle-income countries paid $38.5 billion more to external creditors in 2022–23 than they received in new disbursements. V20 central bank governors advanced the proposed $1 billion Lifeline Fund for rapid liquidity to climate-vulnerable countries. The meetings ended without a binding resolution on the Bank's climate mandate, leaving the June 2026 CCAP expiry as a critical juncture.

Key figure — $38.5 billion net outflow from poor to rich countries in 2022–23