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There has been much excitement about the role that ‘country platforms’–such as the Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs)–can play in accelerating climate action. They offer an opportunity to advance national development priorities while cutting emissions from the power sector, enabled by more generous and strategically deployed international concessional finance. Responding to strong demand for such programmatic international support, the multilateral development banks (MDBs) reiterated their commitment to climate-related country platforms at COP28 in Dubai.

One of the key challenges facing JETPs is that–despite having the term ‘just’in their names–there is no clear vision or agreement on how to define or advance justice within climaterelated country platforms. The role that the MDBs can and should play in this regard, given their mandates and competencies, is particularly unclear. That is concerning because the MDBs are playing a significant role as technical advisors and financiers in several of the existing JETPs. Moreover, the MDBs plan to roll out country platforms at scale to drive a global step change in climate action.