From December 2-3, the Independent Integrity Unit (IIU) co-organised a conference on addressing corruption and other integrity risks in climate finance, which took place in Washington, D.C.  

The event was a collaboration between IIU and multiple divisions of the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank’s Office of Suspension and Debarment, the International Anti-Corruption Academy, and Transparency International. 

The two-day event explored corruption risks and integrity challenges in climate finance, providing stakeholders with practical risk assessment and mitigation strategies through collaborative knowledge exchange. While climate finance has reached USD 1.3 trillion annually, it remains significantly below the roughly USD 9 trillion required yearly through 2030 to meet global climate objectives.  

The different sessions focused on strengthening collaborations between public institutions, private sector entities, and civil society to enhance governance frameworks and ensure effective delivery of climate finance to intended beneficiaries.  IIU was represented by Deputy Head Albert Lihalakha and Integrity & Compliance Manager Sanjeev Narrainen.  

Participating remotely, Albert Lihalakha spoke on two panels about integrity tools and strategies to protect climate finance integrity. He highlighted the need to proactively address integrity risks through tools such as AI and Machine Learning, which IIU has been developing as part of its integrity risk management process to conduct Proactive Integrity Reviews. 

Sanjeev Narrainen attended in-person, participating in a panel session on the link between climate change and corruption and the need for cross-cutting research and awareness-raising. He highlighted the importance of multi-stakeholder engagement in this space and emphasised the need for more research on the linkage between corruption and climate change to develop bespoke risk mitigation strategies. 

Even though progress has been made in recent years, a significant gap remains in the understanding between professionals in the environmental and climate sectors and those focused on anti-corruption efforts. This event contributed to addressing this challenge by helping to raise awareness among climate professionals on the need to ensure transparency, accountability and integrity in climate related projects. 

The organisers will be setting up a working group on this topic to continue the discussions on the integrity risks in climate projects.