The 2025 IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington arrive at a pivotal moment for the global economy and climate agenda. With COP30 in Belém now just weeks away, the choices made by ministers, central bankers and international financial institutions will directly shape whether climate ambition can be financed at the scale required. For civil society, governments, and financial actors alike, the meetings represent a chance to lock in reforms, prevent backsliding, and set a durable course for development and resilience.
A critical week for climate finance
As the global economy faces persistent fragility, from geopolitical shocks to climate-driven disasters, the stakes facing the IMF and World Bank have rarely been higher. The Annual Meetings provide a moment of convergence: finance ministers, central bankers, and civil society gathered to debate not only how to sustain growth, but also how to make it resilient in the face of escalating climate risks. What happens in Washington next week will reverberate in Belém at COP30, where leaders must show up with a plan for closing the climate finance gap. To support this, international financial institutions (IFIs) must deploy their balance sheets and policy influence with enough urgency and innovation to meet the moment.
The key role of the G20
G20 Finance Ministers will meet for the last time this year before South Africa hands over the Presidency to the United States, with the 2026 agenda highly uncertain. International efforts to ensure continuity and momentum on sustainable finance and reform of the international financial architecture are critical, with trillions needed for climate-resilient development. Central banks, too, face rising pressure: integrating climate into monetary policy and deepening climate stress testing are essential tasks.
In parallel, Brazil will present the long-awaited report of the Circle of Finance Ministers, outlining levers to unlock $1.3 trillion in external climate finance for emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). A formal endorsement by ministers and governors would mark a decisive validation: recognising that climate finance cannot be a marginal agenda, but one integral to macroeconomic stability and global growth. Such a show of support will be hugely important to set the scene for further discussions in Belém.
The IMF: Climate as a core mandate
The IMF’s central role in safeguarding macroeconomic and financial stability necessarily extends to climate change, which is demonstrably macro-critical. Physical shocks such as Dominica’s loss of 225% of GDP during Hurricane Maria, Pakistan’s escalating debt pressures from successive floods, and insurance market pressures in the US and Caribbean illustrate the profound economic consequences of climate risk. These impacts touch fiscal sustainability, external balances and financial sector resilience – in other words, the Fund’s core mandate.
For this reason, the IMF’s 2021 Climate Strategy was a landmark moment. Shareholders must resist pressures to dilute implementation. Instead, countries should defend and operationalise the strategy across surveillance, programming, and capacity development. Recent IMF research, including Integrating Climate Change into Macroeconomic Analysis, confirms both the urgency and feasibility of this task. Failing to follow through on previous progress would not only undermine the Fund’s legitimacy but also weaken the global economic safety net as climate shocks intensify.
The World Bank: Evolution at a crossroads
Equally consequential is the trajectory of the World Bank. Over the past three years, the Bank’s “evolution” reforms have positioned it as a leader in climate finance, leveraging balance sheet optimisation and innovative instruments such as hybrid capital and portfolio guarantees. Yet that progress remains fragile. Any backtracking on climate and energy policies – or a pause in implementing unfinished reforms – would send the wrong signal ahead of COP30 and see others step into a leadership gap in shaping the green, resilient economy of the future.
Instead, momentum must be consolidated. A renewed climate strategy, potentially expanded to integrate nature and biodiversity, would demonstrate that climate leadership is not episodic but structural to the Bank’s mission. Commitments to advance pending or pilot reforms – from its enhanced callable capital offer to expanded financial incentives for Global Challenges – would further reinforce credibility. By sustaining these reforms, the Bank can cement its role as both catalyst and convener, mobilising resources at the scale developing countries urgently require.
Beyond the walls of the World Bank, 2025 has been a chastening year for development, with widespread cuts to aid budgets exacerbating concerns over where public climate finance will come from. The Annual Meetings offer a last chance before Belém for leaders to set out a more positive vision, and pressure will mount on donors to provide clarity on future climate finance, with replenishment of the African Development Fund also looming on the horizon.
Why it matters now
The fundamental imperative is clear: the world has no time to waste. Governments must use every tool at their disposal to mobilise climate finance and deliver support where it is most needed. That includes recycling Special Drawing Rights, scaling guarantees and deploying innovative balance sheet mechanisms. Indicators at the Annual Meetings will reveal whether governments are prepared to act with sufficient ambition.
The Annual Meetings are a stress test of international cooperation. If the IMF and World Bank can demonstrate leadership, defend their climate strategies, and expand their financial reach, they will help build confidence in the lead-up to COP30 and beyond. But if momentum is seen to stall, the credibility of the financial system and multilateralism risks erosion with consequences that extend far beyond Washington or Belém.
