Working with partners in Burkina Faso, Ghana, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Senegal, Industrious Labs traced what actually happens to the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) climate commitments once a project moves from appraisal into practice. We looked at what IFC knew going in, whether that information consistently influences what IFC finances, what IFC requires clients to deliver, and how IFC assesses performance over time.

The distinction matters: a climate risk identified at appraisal is not the same as a requirement a company has to meet, and a requirement on paper is not the same as a result communities can see and hold someone accountable for. Across the projects we examined, that chain breaks down in consistent ways:

• Climate commitments lose accountability over time. Promising assessments at appraisal don't always translate into binding requirements or trackable results.
• Efficiency improvements can mask rising emissions. A project can look cleaner on paper while its total climate impact keeps growing.
• Climate analysis doesn't always shape the investment itself. Too often, it improves a project IFC already decided to finance, rather than testing the choice itself.
• Money that flows through banks and funds is harder to track. Indirect finance weakens IFC's line of sight to high-emitting projects and communities' path back to accountability.
• Consultation doesn't guarantee influence. Communities are often informed, but the record rarely shows their input changing a project's design.

As IFC and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) revise the Sustainability Framework, this evidence offers a roadmap: make climate obligations binding at financial close, supervise and publicly report on climate performance through IFC's existing systems, and apply the same standards to money IFC lends through intermediaries.

Industrious Labs will share findings in a forthcoming case study report. This brief shares five recurring findings from that evidence, and identifies seven recommendations for how the revised Framework can address them.

Download the brief.