20 January 2016: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) have announced that they will cooperate on environmental conservation in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change. The IDB is set to increase its financial support to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to more than US$150 billion over the coming years.

Ibrahim Thiaw, UNEP Deputy Executive Director, and Ahmad Mohamed Ali Al-Madani, IDB President, signed the agreement on 20 January 2016, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU), set to run until June 2018 initially, covers objectives in the areas of: climate change; agriculture and food security; eco-innovation and green economy; and Islamic finance. The agreement will support capacity building in member countries in all of these thematic areas, while encouraging broader involvement of the international financial sector in sustainable development.

In a keynote speech, Thiaw stressed that, after Paris, the question has become not “if” the world will transition to a green economy but rather “how fast.” While government policy and leadership can provide the impetus for the transition, he explained, the private sector will play an “outsized role” in both financing and innovation. He said UNEP looks forward to joining forces with IDB to drive the transition to a sustainable future, noting that the Bank plans to increasingly redirect its finance towards green investments.

The IDB is a multilateral financial institution established to foster socioeconomic development of its member countries and Muslim communities in non-member countries. It aims to promote human development through investments in poverty reduction, health, education and governance. [UNEP Press Release] [Remarks of UNEP Deputy Executive Director] [IDB Website]