NGOs Raise Alarm About Nuclear Backsliding at Major Development Banks

Urgewald is among the first endorsers of a petition urging the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank Group (WBG) to uphold their decades-long stance against financing nuclear power. The WBG President Ajay Banga officially changed course on June 10, while ADB is currently reviewing its energy policy, with strong indications it will open the door to nuclear projects as well.

ADB’s Energy Policy Mid-Term Review

In an open letter to ADB leadership, Urgewald and over 20 NGO partners caution against a potential nuclear renaissance in the bank’s ongoing Energy Policy mid-term review. At a turning point for the clean energy transition, redirecting funds towards slow-to-build, costly, and risky nuclear energy capacities could stop the renewable buildout in its tracks. 

The letter also raises serious concerns about developing countries’ capacity to ensure safety, regulatory standards, and non-proliferation safeguards, citing systemic gaps in institutional and technical expertise, regulatory acumen, and emergency preparedness. 

While proponents of nuclear power within ADB like to project consensus on the issue, there are also critical voices, and the policy change would go against many members’ energy needs. 

Merete Looft, Energy Campaigner at Urgewald, says: “ADB’s politically motivated nuclear U-turn could decimate developing countries’ energy transition paths and leave millions in darkness for years to come. Solar and wind power have entered a virtuous cycle and are almost always the cheapest, fastest, and most scalable options for new electricity generation and energy access. The world’s poorest regions have no use for high-cost, high-risk nuclear power projects that will take decades to even start, to say nothing of the unresolved radioactive waste challenge. Today more than ever, ‘development’ and ‘nuclear power’ are mutually exclusive. ADB should not make the mistake of trying to bring them together.”

The World Bank Group Sets Negative Example

On June 10, 2025, the World Bank Group officially lifted the ban on financing nuclear power, with the specific intent to fund Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and nuclear power plant life extensions.^[1] Both involve drawn-out (re-)construction periods and ballooning costs that render the resulting energy prohibitively expensive, especially compared to renewables. 

Ute Koczy, Senior Campaign Advisor at Urgewald, comments: “President Ajay Banga is pushing a reckless ‘all of the above’ energy approach. Nuclear power is the latest in a cavalcade of dangerous distractions and false solutions that stifle the just energy transition. In a period of dwindling foreign aid, multilateral development banks have a duty to direct scarce resources towards effective, inclusive, and sustainable solutions. Supporting nuclear energy is a clear dereliction of that duty, incompatible with any part of the World Bank’s goal to end poverty on a livable planet.”