Press Room
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News & Updates
Commentaries
In The News
October 2, 2024
Germany’s OECD National Contact Point for Responsible Business Conduct has issued a statement responding to complaints over Heidelberg Materials’ controversial plans to construct a cement mine and factory in Central Java.
September 10, 2024
In a major win for local communities, Indonesia’s Supreme Court ruled that an environmental permit granted to the Dairi Prima Mineral mine should be revoked.
August 19, 2024
Ahead of the United Nations Secretary-General (UNSG)’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals meeting in Nairobi, Inclusive Development International and our partners created a briefing document to inform the panel about the concerns and demands of communities directly impacted by transition mineral mining and processing.
July 26, 2024
Inclusive Development International has joined more than 230 civil society organizations in endorsing a set of recommendations to the UN Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, to guide its efforts to ensure that the process of supplying minerals needed to phase out fossil fuels is both rapid and just.
July 16, 2024
It is long past time for the Bank to acknowledge its duties and responsibilities under international law to remedy harm that it causes or contributes to.
July 15, 2024
The International Finance Corporation’s internal watchdog, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), announced that it is launching an investigation into the institution’s investments in a commercial bank that is financing construction of two new coal-fired power plants at Indonesia’s Suralaya Power Station.
July 8, 2024
A new analysis, published today by Recourse, Trend Asia and Inclusive Development International, demonstrates that publicly-funded Multilateral Development Banks are at risk of funding a wave of ‘captive’ coal expansion in climate-vulnerable countries, despite commitments to shift funds from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
June 15, 2024
Twelve Indigenous villages in Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Vietnamese agribusiness giant HAGL Agrico, following a breakthrough in a decade-long mediation process aimed at resolving a protracted land dispute.
June 8, 2024
This is a joint statement by over 115 international civil society organizations to call upon the Ugandan authorities to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Stephen Kwikiriza, who has been held incommunicado since his abduction by plain clothed officers in Kampala on June 4th 2024.
May 22, 2024
On May 16, 2024 the World Bank announced that it is hiring an outside firm to “explore the circumstances surrounding the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman’s (CAO) investigation of IFC’s investment in Bridge International Academies.” We commend the World Bank’s Board for taking the lead on this issue.
December 13, 2023
Bretton Woods Project
- David Pred, Margaux Day
Embracing a new remedy approach in line with the UNGPs will support the World Bank to tackle the crises of our time without externalizing risk onto the poor communities it is committed to serve. The alternative is grim: A bigger Bank, externalizing the costs of development on the poor, with greater speed and at greater scale than ever. That is why we say there can be no evolution without remedy.
June 19, 2023
South China Morning Post
- Margaux Day, Zelda Liang (Independent Consultant)
China’s groundbreaking Green Finance Guidelines require both policy and commercial banks to establish grievance mechanisms for affected communities. The newly formed National Financial Regulatory Administration should see to it that Chinese banks implement this requirement.
March 27, 2023
ESG Clarity
- David Pred
As Adani Group stocks tanked last month, following revelations of fraud and market manipulation at the Indian conglomerate, some investors in ESG-focused funds were surprised to find themselves exposed to losses.
February 27, 2023
China Dialogue
- Margaux Day, Zelda Liang (Independent Consultant)
A new mechanism for Chinese overseas mining needs to be free from company interference and to protect communities from retaliation.
October 17, 2022
BankTrack
- Margaux Day, Natalie Bugalski, Ryan Brightwell
Either they get solved at the annual meeting of signatories starting today in Seoul, or the principles risk fading into irrelevance.
September 9, 2022
ESG Investor
- Coleen Scott
Earlier this year, my colleagues at Inclusive Development International published an investigation that revealed a staggering figure: more than US$13 billion of ESG-labeled investments have gone to companies involved in arming, funding and legitimising the brutal military regime in Myanmar. As shocking and disturbing as that is, it is not an anomaly.
June 16, 2022
South China Morning Post
- Margaux Day, Zelda Liang (Independent Consultant)
On June 1, Beijing issued green finance guidelines for Chinese financial institutions. Notably, Chinese banks and insurers are asked, for the first time, to establish grievance mechanisms to manage clients’ environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) risks.
May 9, 2022
Devex
- aaron pedrosa, David Pred, kate geary
In July 2016, environmental activist Gloria Capitan was brutally killed in front of her 8-year-old grandson in the Bataan province of the Philippines, allegedly due to her anti-coal advocacy as the leader of the Coal-Free Bataan Movement. Climate change is perhaps the biggest threat that humanity faces, yet the people who devote their lives to this cause are under attack.
March 21, 2022
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
- David Pred, Natalie Bugalski
ESG-labeled funds have exploded in popularity in recent years, hitting $3.9 trillion in assets under management last year. Driven by marketing claims that ESG is a way for investors to align their money with their values, it’s now the fastest growing sector of financial services. But these funds are littered with companies with appalling records.
February 4, 2022
Medium
- David Pred, Natalie Bugalski
The UK government body charged with enforcing the OECD’s standards on responsible business conduct called out the sugar industry’s sustainability association last month for admitting a company responsible for gross human rights abuses.
September 5, 2024
Mongabay
Indonesia’s highest court has ordered the revocation of the environmental permit for the Dairi Prima Mineral mine, a zinc-and-lead mine being built in a seismically active zone in Sumatra.
August 30, 2024
Yale Environment 360
The Supreme Court of Indonesia has withdrawn approval for a zinc mine and dammed waste pond being built near a fault line in North Sumatra. The ruling comes as a relief to locals, who feared an earthquake would destroy the dam, flooding villages below with toxic waste.
July 24, 2024
Devex
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, a global law firm, has been tapped by the World Bank to probe accusations that the International Finance Corporation interfered with an investigation into alleged child sexual abuse at a chain of schools it funded in Kenya.
July 17, 2024
Eco-Business
The internal inquiry by the bank’s ombudsmen will address complaints that its private lending arm, International Finance Corporation, is indirectly supporting the Surabaya coal complex. IFC denies any non-compliance with existing policies.
July 16, 2024
Mongabay
A new report reveals that the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has indirectly financed at least one captive coal project on Indonesia’s Obi Island via its financial intermediary client, Hana Bank Indonesia.
June 12, 2024
The Intercept
The World Bank’s private investment arm is refusing to directly compensate individuals who faced sexual, physical, and financial harms at a chain of schools it funded in Africa and India, despite requests from the people who were hurt and pressure from civil society advocates, U.S. senators, and an internal watchdog.
May 6, 2024
Eco-Business
A new study by civic society groups accuses the Asian Development Bank of indirectly financing coal power plants in Indonesia as the multilateral holds its annual general meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia.
April 25, 2024
Agence France-Presse
Green NGOs have accused the Asian Development Bank of indirectly financing coal plants in Indonesia through a $600 million loan despite promises to no longer fund projects tied to the fossil fuel, according to a new report.
April 17, 2024
CSO Futures
A coalition of NGOs working for a sustainable and equitable electric vehicle value chain is urging the International Standards Organisation (ISO) to put civil society at the centre of its upcoming critical mineral supply chain standard.
March 27, 2024
Foreign Policy
World Bank chief Ajay Banga apologized earlier this month for the organization’s handling of widespread child sexual abuse at a chain of for-profit Kenyan schools that it funded through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the bank’s investment arm.