June 26, 2026
France's development minister issued an eleventh-hour plea to the World Bank on Thursday, urging it to resist pressure from its largest shareholder, the United States, and stick with a climate finance target due to lapse at the end of the month.
US President Donald Trump's administration has demanded the World Bank abandon a target to devote 45 percent of its annual lending resources to climate-related projects, and focus instead on core development lending, including a return to fossil fuel projects.
The Climate Change Action Plan, or CCAP, has already been extended by a year but look sets to lapse without a clear replacement, something many European and other World Bank shareholders are worried about.
"As shareholders, countries of these institutions, it is, of course, our responsibility to ensure that their operations remain sufficiently ambitious when it comes to climate finance," France's development minister Eleonore Caroit said at a London Climate Action Week event.
