As much as $41 billion in World Bank climate finance is unaccounted for, according to Oxfam International.

In a report released on Thursday, Oxfam revealed that an audit of the World Bank’s climate finance activities from 2017-2023 found that between $21 billion and $41 billion in climate finance was not tracked from the time projects were approved to their completion.

The report reads: “There is no clear public record showing where this money went or how it was used, which makes any assessment of its impacts impossible.

“It also remains unclear whether these funds were even spent on climate-related initiatives intended to help low- and middle-income countries protect people from the impacts of the climate crisis and invest in clean energy.

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“Our findings show that for each World Bank project, the average deviation between budgeted amounts and expenditures lies between 26% and 43%.

“This means that, on average, any World Bank project that has reported a share of climate finance for mitigation and/or adaptation at the approval stage can be expected to have ultimately delivered an amount that differs from what was planned by between 26% and 43%.”

The report also noted that the true impact of the projects carried out by the World Bank cannot be evaluated due to lack of assessment methods.

It reads: “Across the portfolio of World Bank climate finance projects between 2017 and 2023, the total value of such deviation between budgeted and actual expenditures lies between US$24.28 billion and US$41.32 billion.

“This large pool of finance could include the funding of new climate actions as well as the defunding of other climate actions.

“Overall, however, the impact of this amount is unknown, as there is simply no assessment of how this climate finance was allocated or reallocated as projects were executed.”

According to head of Oxfam International’s Washington DC office, Kate Donald, the issue is not merely a bureaucratic oversight but a serious breach of trust capable of derailing the progress anticipated at this year’s Conference of the Parties (COP).

Donald said: “The Bank is quick to brag about its climate finance billions — but these numbers are based on what it plans to spend, not on what it actually spends once a project gets rolling.

“This is like asking your doctor to assess your diet only by looking at your grocery list, without ever checking what actually ends up in your fridge.

“Climate finance is scarce, and yes, we know it’s hard to deliver. But not tracking how or where the money actually gets spent?

“That’s not just some bureaucratic oversight — it’s a fundamental breach of trust that risks derailing the progress we need to make at COP this year. The Bank needs to act like our future depends on tackling the climate crisis, because it does.”

He explained that the investigation uncovered how challenging and painstaking it was to obtain even basic information about how the World Bank is utilising climate finance.

He said: “We had to sift through layers of complex and incomplete reports, and even then, the data was full of gaps and inconsistencies.

“The fact that this information is so hard to access and understand is alarming — it shouldn’t take a team of professional researchers to figure out how billions of dollars meant for climate action are being spent.

“This should be transparent and accessible to everyone, most importantly communities who are meant to benefit from climate finance.”