The various multilateral development banks (MDBs) will in future be working under a joint framework for aligning their activities with the goals of the Paris Agreement, reinforcing their commitment to combat climate change.

In a joint declaration issued at the Katowice climate change summit in early December, the MDBs committed to working together in six key areas considered central to meeting the goals of the Agreement, which aims to limit the increase in global temperatures to well below 2°C, and to pursue efforts towards achieving a 1.5°C target.

"The global development agenda is at a pivotal point," the joint declaration says. "There is international consensus on the urgent need to ensure that policy engagements and financial flows are consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development."

The MDBs and the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) had already pledged in December 2017 to align financial flows with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. "To realise this vision, we are working together to develop a dedicated approach," the declaration adds.

The MDBs plan to break their joint approach down into practical work on six core Paris Alignment areas, the so-called building blocks, including: aligning their operations against mitigation and climate-resilience goals; ramping up climate finance; capacity building support for countries and other clients; plus, an emphasis on climate reporting.

This approach builds on the ongoing MDB contribution to climate finance, which, in 2017, amounted to US$35 billion to tackle climate change in developing and emerging economies, mobilizing an additional US$52 billion from private and public sector sources.

The nine MDBs are: The African Development Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank Group, the Islamic Development Bank, the New Development Bank, and the World Bank Group (World Bank, IFC, MIGA).