The eight Multilateral Development Banks[i] (MDBs) have published the fourth joint Progress Report on Sustainable Transport. The report concludes that the eight organisations collectively provided around USD 23 billion of new funding for sustainable transport projects in 2015, and remain on target to meet the goal set by the Rio+20 Commitment to Sustainable Transport.
Of this total, the EIB provided around EUR 5.3 billion for transport projects in developing countries, including the financing of a bus rapid transit system in Laos and a railway project in Bangladesh.
In June 2012, at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the eight MDBs launched a Commitment to Sustainable Transport. The Rio+20 Commitment, as it has come to be known, set the shared aim of providing more than USD 175 billion in loans and grants for transport in developing countries over the following decade. From 2012-2014, the MDBs support for sustainable transport projects has totaled around USD 65bn. With USD 23 billion of new funding for sustainable transport projects in 2015, the MDBs are on track to meet the commitment made during the Rio+20 conference. Because sustainable transport plays a critical role as an enable of sustainable development, this achievement also marks a key step towards the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.
[i] The eight MDBs are the African Development Bank (AfDB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), CAF – Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the World Bank (WB)