In November 2025, a group of global CSOs shared their analysis and recommendations on IFC’s Performance Standard 3 (PS3) on Resource Efficiency and Pollution Prevention & Climate Change with IFC Independent Evaluation Group.
To remain aligned with current climate goals, best available practices in resource management and pollution prevention, and evolving legal obligations, PS3 requires a significant and ambitious update. Strengthening PS3 is essential not only to protect people and the environment, but also to reduce IFC and client exposure to stranded-asset risk, ensure the deployment of technologies that reduce carbon intensity without harming local communities, especially Indigenous Peoples and women who are most impacted by climate change, and without prolonging the life of existing fossil fuel infrastructure.
IFC PS have long served as a global benchmark, with IFC having played a key role in the creation of the Equator Principles, for instance. However, as international standards, scientific understanding, and market expectations have evolved, the IFC PS, and especially Performance Standard 3, have remained behind.
A revised PS3 should reaffirm IFC’s leadership role by ensuring alignment with international environmental and social standards and by setting clear, enforceable expectations for clients. Doing so would enhance the development impact of IFC’s investments and of the many private and public financial institutions that rely on the Performance Standards as a global reference point, while promoting resilient, equitable, and low-carbon development pathways.
This submission focuses on three core areas where updates to PS3 are necessary:
- Climate integrity and emissions accountability
- Resource efficiency and circularity
- Pollution prevention and hazardous waste management
Any revision of Performance Standard 3 (and of the Performance Standards more broadly) must apply consistently and be fully enforceable across all IFC-supported activities, including those implemented through financial intermediaries and capital markets transactions. Ensuring uniform application throughout the financing chain is essential to achieving credible, portfolio-wide environmental and social outcomes.
Furthermore, we urge IFC to embed the proposed requirements directly within the Performance Standards themselves, rather than relying primarily on guidance materials. Incorporating these expectations into the Standards maximizes their normative influence, strengthens accountability, and preserves their role as widely adopted global benchmarks. Explicit references to best available practices and recognized international standards are therefore necessary within the PS text to ensure its continued relevance and effectiveness.