Just Finance International works to ensure that the public budget spent globally on development and infrastructure finance is contributing to the advancement of sustainability for populations and the environment. We focus mainly on these three areas
Fossil-Fuel Free Finance
The global climate emergency needs financing for climate solutions, yet state-mandated institutions and companies continue to bankroll coal, oil and gas investments.
And despite international commitments to phase out the exploration and construction of coal power plants, companies and banks are still enabling the expansion of coal industry, which remains the world’s most carbon-intensive and polluting energy source.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that if the Paris climate goals are to be achieved, all untouched fossils must stay in the ground, and that all state subsidies for extraction and export must be stopped. Just Finance International calls on governments and financial institutions to take the lead in ending the financing of fossil fuels by export credit agencies and development finance institutions.
Belt and Road Initiative
In 2013, the Chinese government established a Beijing-led global infrastructure development strategy, known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
And despite international commitments to phase out the exploration and construction of coal power plants, companies and banks are still enabling the expansion of coal industry, which remains the world’s most carbon-intensive and polluting energy source.
The BRI is known for its ‘ease of doing business’ – and doesn’t hold recipients of financing to binding conditions on environmental and social standards. BRI deals are often shrouded in secrecy, while decision making processes are often off-limits to the public, including local communities most likely to be impacted by the projects. Just Finance International works with both local and international actors to make sure these investments and projects are held to better transparency and accountability standards.
Accountable Development Finance
Financing from development finance institutions (DFIs) and multilateral development banks (MDBs) often leads to big-ticket and large-scale infrastructure projects, which are, by definition, high risk.
Development finance-mandated projects, when not well-planned or in consultation with communities, can cause loss of livelihoods and involuntary resettlement, as well as the loss of people’s voices and their right to participation in decision making. And in many cases, violations of human rights and debilitating poverty.
Just Finance International works to make sure that shareholding governments and development institutions – DFIs and MDBs – improve governance and adopt binding and stronger environmental and social safeguard policies, instead of defaulting to the use of weak standards that may prove more attractive to their clients or client host governments.