International Financial Flows and the Environment

About this grant

The International Financial Flows and the Environment project of the World Resources Institute provides important research and data to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and key public institutions on international financial flows and public policy options. The overarching goal of the project is to shift patterns of development finance so that they support environmental sustainability.Multiyear funding will enable the project to increase international financial institution accountability for the social and environmental impacts of its lending and to strengthen public participation in policymaking related to private investment in the electricity sector. Objectives include analyzing the World Bank’s private-sector activities; reforming export credit agency mandates and policies; and strengthening public participation in the electricity sector’s decisionmaking.Recent accomplishments included raising awareness, promoting dialogue and influencing policy debates about the appropriate role of public international financial institutions in promoting private-sector investment and the environmental impacts of such investment; changing the way that many developing country governments, electricity experts and NGO networks think about electricity-sector reform; and conducting workshops and presentations to raise awareness of the potential constraints that international trade and investment agreements put on domestic environmental regulation and policy reforms.