CIVIL society organisations (CSOs) urged the G20 today to move faster on reforming international financial systems to combat climate change and pandemics at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank annual meetings next week.

“The world is on the brink of catastrophe,” the CSOs said in a joint letter ahead of the October 9-14 gathering in Marrakesh, Morocco.

“Time is running short and modest incrementalism won’t be enough,” said the letter signed by nine CSOs, including Global Citizen, ONE Campaign, Pandemic Action Network and E3G.

The IMF and World Bank were under pressure to reform their lending systems to better address the challenges posed by climate change.

The letter called for tripling financing of multilateral development banks by 2030, as suggested by an independent expert group commissioned by the G20.

It urged ministers to make good on a pledge to reallocate US$100 billion (RM473.1 billion) in IMF special drawing rights to help vulnerable nations tackle climate change.

The CSOs also said G20 members and other wealthy nations should phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2025.

Friederike Roeder, Global Citizen’s vice-president for global policy, said he hoped the talks would lead to “measurable progress by the World Bank and IMF on several topics”.

“We need much more financing for development and climate – not just promises,” he told AFP.

“We need an action plan with numbers that is more ambitious than what we have seen until now,” he said. – AFP, October 4, 2023.