The Pulse | Environment | South Asia

As World Bank Retreats From Climate Targets, India’s Most Vulnerable Could Pay the Price

Most climate finance goes where it is easiest to lend. Embankments, water systems, shade, and shelters that save lives and livelihoods in villages struggle to find funding.

A man carries a calf through flood waters in Assam’s Dibrugarh district, India, July 2024.

More than 80 percent of India’s population lives in districts highly vulnerable to floods, droughts, and cyclones, according to the Climate Vulnerability Index developed by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water. In states such as Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Bihar, that vulnerability is already visible in damaged roads, disrupted farming, and recurring displacement. Local officials know what is needed — higher roads, stronger embankments, safer shelters, and simple early-warning systems. However, the problem is not knowledge, but funding.

Just as these districts need more protection from rising heat and encroaching water, the World Bank has ended its 45 percent climate finance target, a change that could weaken accountability for where money goes. This decision will widen the gap between where climate money is easiest to spend and where it is actually needed. For India’s poorest, most climate‑exposed districts, especially marginalized rural communities, dropping a binding target weakens accountability and makes it easier to bury real adaptation needs under vague “outcomes.”

When there is no hard number to meet, money is more likely to flow toward large, easy-to-package projects such as solar parks, grid upgrades, and metro lines. The risk is that large projects are counted as climate work while flood-prone districts wait for funds for embankments, shelters, or early-warning systems.

We write this as researchers and advocates who have worked inside government and policy settings and seen how funding commitments shrink as they move from paper to practice.

At COP28 in Dubai, the World Bank set a simple rule: 45 percent of its annual financing would support projects with climate co-benefits, meaning work that either cuts emissions or helps people cope with floods, heat, and drought. The 45 percent climate co-benefits target asked a simple question: how much of the Bank’s lending was meaningfully climate related?

In June, under pressure from the United States, the Bank said it would retire that 45 percent target. It now says it will stop counting how much of its lending is climate-related and instead focus on broader “outcomes to maximize development impact,” with climate supposedly woven into everything it does.

On paper, that may sound flexible. But without a clear benchmark, it becomes harder for outsiders, including India, to check what is actually being financed or whether the money is reaching the places that need it most.

India needs substantial climate finance each year: about $160 billion to $288 billion annually through 2030 just to keep up with........

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