The Green Climate Fund and 11 of the 15 multilateral development banks together invested at least $2.27 billion in factory farming in 2023, undercutting their stated climate goals, according to a report published Monday by the Stop Financing Factory Farming coalition.
Pigs stand in their pens at a farm in Zhuji, east China's
Zhejiang province on March 2, 2011. (Photo: STR/AFP via Getty
Images)
The Green Climate Fund and 11 of the 15 multilateral development
banks together invested at least $2.27 billion in factory farming in
2023, undercutting their stated climate goals, according to a report
published Monday by the Stop Financing Factory Farming coalition.
The report, launched the same day as the start of the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank's annual meetings in Washington,
D.C., found that the World Bank was the worst offender. The
bank—principally through its private-sector lending arm the
International Finance Corporation (IFC)—put nearly $750 million
toward industrial agricultural projects, five times more than any of
the other banks.
"Factory farming is a leading driver of greenhouse gas emissions,
deforestation, biodiversity loss, animal cruelty, and water
pollution," Merel van der Mark, head of Animal Welfare and Finance
at Sinergia Animal, said in a statement. "Development banks have all
pledged to align their investments with the Paris climate agreement,
yet are failing to make the kinds of investments needed to keep the
goal to limit global temperature rises to 1.5°C within reach."
The report was based on 2023 disclosure information scraped from
project webpages by the Early Warning System. It found that the
Green Climate Fund and 11 of the 15 multilateral development banks
had invested a total of $3.3 billion in animal agriculture
generally, funding 62 projects. The banks also mobilized another
$3.4 billion for the sector from other sources including banks and
governments. The World Bank Group also led the pack in animal
agriculture financing overall at over $1.5 billion.
Factory farming—or industrial agriculture—received most of that
money, representing 68.3% of investments and 76.7% of supported
projects. Only 2.3% of investments and 6.7% of projects involved
non-industrial farming that might potentially be sustainable.
The report's authors said their research "reveals a concerning trend
toward support for the industrialization of animal agriculture."
This can occur through more monocropping of plants like soy or corn
for animal feed; more warehousing of large numbers of animals in
concentrated feed operations that release large amounts of climate-,
land-, and water-polluting waste; and the construction of
slaughterhouses.
The World Bank's investments in factory farming go against its own
research. The bank released a report in May finding that the
agrifood system generates a third of total greenhouse gas emissions,
and that animal production and consumption make up almost 60% of
those emissions. It even stopped serving meat in its staff cafe.
"The World Bank has set out an ambitious road map to drastically cut
agricultural emissions while feeding the world. However, this good
work is being undermined by its private sector arm, the
International Finance Corporation," said International
Accountability Project researcher Alessandro Ramazzotti. "Last year
IFC invested $501 million in factory farming including a $47 million
loan to a Chinese company for a multi-story pig farm, making it the
largest investor of all the development banks. We're calling on
World Bank President Ajay Banja to phase out these investments,
which are undermining his climate agenda."
In addition, the groups behind the Stop Financing Factory Farming
coalition—which is headed by Bank Information Center, Friends of the
Earth U.S., Global Forest Coalition, International Accountability
Project, Sinergia Animal, and World Animal Protection—call on all
development banks to move their money from industrial agriculture to
regenerative agriculture that boosts biodiversity, helps the
environment, and strengthens local communities, following the model
of the five banks in the report that did not invest in factory farms
in 2023.
"There are examples of better practices out there," said Ladd
Connell, environment director at Bank Information Center. "The Green
Climate Fund supports some low-carbon projects, such as providing
financial and technical support to smallholder women farmers in Cote
D'Ivoire to help them adapt to climate change. Where banks invest in
new livestock projects, they should be innovative and sustainable,
following agroecological principles."