The World Bank’s Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) expires in mid-2026, opening a decisive window for shareholders to determine whether the institution will consolidate or diminish its standing as a leading global climate financier. This briefing argues that the moment demands neither complacency nor reinvention, but a strategic enhancement of the existing plan – anchoring it within a unified “Livable Planet Strategy”. Such a move would extend the CCAP through 2030 while broadening its scope to integrate energy transition, adaptation and resilience, nature and biodiversity, and stronger transparency and delivery.
We contend that the World Bank now possesses the financial and policy tools to deliver climate transformation at scale. World Bank “Evolution” reforms and proposals – hybrid capital, portfolio guarantees, Enhance Callable Capital, and the new Framework for Financial Incentives – offer unprecedented capacity to expand lending for clean, job-creating development. But scaling finance alone will not suffice. The Bank must actively generate demand for climate lending by better linking its diagnostic reports (CCDRs) and programming tools (CPFs), embedding resilience into all country strategies, and driving enabling reforms that unlock private investment.
Our analysis urges shareholders to defend core principles that have anchored the Bank’s climate credibility: the 45% climate finance target, maintaining full Paris alignment, and energy policies that keep its portfolio consistent with development-compatible decarbonization. It also calls for new action on adaptation finance, biodiversity and nature integration, and rigorous project-level transparency – ensuring that the Bank’s climate portfolio is tracked and judged by both volume and measurable impact.
As the CCAP succession debate unfolds, this briefing offers a pragmatic blueprint for sustaining ambition while linking progress to recent reform efforts and strengthening coherence across the World Bank Group. Its central message is clear: by extending and enhancing the CCAP, the World Bank can transform from climate lender to global catalyst for resilient, inclusive, and nature-positive growth.
Read the full briefing.
