• France is pressing the World Bank to preserve its target of directing 45% of annual lending to climate-related projects.
• The Trump administration wants the bank to return focus to core development lending, including fossil fuel projects.
• The dispute exposes a widening governance split among major shareholders over climate finance and development priorities.

France Pushes Back as World Bank Climate Target Nears Expiry

France is urging the World Bank to keep its climate finance target alive as the lender faces pressure from its largest shareholder, the United States, to shift course.

France’s development minister, Eleonore Caroit, used a London Climate Action Week event on Thursday to call for continued climate ambition at the World Bank. Her intervention came days before the bank’s current climate finance target is due to expire at the end of June.

The target sits within the World Bank’s Climate Change Action Plan, known as CCAP. It commits the bank to direct 45% of its annual lending resources toward climate-related projects. The plan has already been extended by one year. However, it now appears set to lapse without a clear successor.

That has alarmed France, other European governments and several World Bank shareholders. They see the target as a core part of the lender’s role in helping countries manage climate risk, build resilience and finance the energy transition.

“As shareholders, countries of these institutions, it is, of course, our responsibility to ensure that their operations remain sufficiently ambitious when it comes to climate finance,” France’s development minister Eleonore Caroit said at a London Climate Action Week event.

“And this is, of course, the case where other shareholders have different views on climate, as it is the case now,” she added, referring to the U.S. administration of Donald Trump.

U.S. Pressure Reopens Fossil Fuel Debate

The dispute reflects a broader political shift in global climate finance. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has demanded that the World Bank abandon the 45% climate finance target. It wants the institution to focus on traditional development lending and reopen support for fossil fuel projects.

That position is creating friction inside one of the world’s most important development finance institutions. The World Bank plays a major role in funding infrastructure, adaptation, energy access and disaster resilience across emerging and developing economies.

For governments vulnerable to floods, heatwaves, droughts and storms, the lending mix matters. It can shape the cost and availability of finance for climate resilience. It can also influence whether public capital crowds in private investment for clean energy, transport and nature protection.

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A group of 19 of 25 World Bank shareholders signed a statement last October backing continued support for the bank’s climate goals. Directors representing the United States, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait declined to sign.

For C-suite leaders and investors, the governance divide is material. Multilateral development banks often set the tone for blended finance, transition lending and risk guarantees. A weakened climate mandate could affect project pipelines in emerging markets and alter the risk profile for private capital.

France Says Supportive Shareholders Will Keep Pressure On

Caroit said France and aligned shareholders would remain focused on the World Bank’s next steps. Her comments also carried a human detail. Her train from Paris to London was delayed by track issues linked to record European temperatures.

The timing sharpened her message. Extreme heat is already disrupting transport, energy systems and supply chains across Europe. For policymakers, it is also becoming a live test of public infrastructure resilience.

Caroit said supportive shareholders would “remain extremely attentive” to what happens next. “We will continue to ensure that the direction that the World Bank Climate Change Action Plan takes is ⁠the right one, and this is something that we’ve been advocating for in Washington, and will do so in Bangkok in a few months,” she said, referring to the World Bank and IMF annual meetings in mid-October.

She also pointed to the Trump administration’s opposition to other global environmental efforts, including talks on a plastics pollution treaty. In her view, countries that want continued progress should not retreat because some governments are pushing back.

“We shouldn’t abandon. We should continue to be focused with the countries that want to continue and ensure that this ⁠produces results,” Caroit said.

The climate finance fight now moves into a high-stakes period before the World Bank and IMF annual meetings in Bangkok. The outcome will test how far shareholder coalitions can protect climate priorities when political support from Washington weakens.

For developing economies, the decision carries practical weight. It will influence access to affordable finance for resilience, clean power and adaptation. For global investors, it may also define whether the World Bank remains a climate finance anchor or shifts toward a narrower development model.

With climate-related disasters expected to become more frequent because of global warming, Caroit added: “We need to send a strong signal to all countries and to all economic actors, in particular, in a time of backlash, so to speak, in certain countries.”

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