Two advocacy groups, the Sierra Club and Oil Change International, said multilateral development banks weren't doing enough ensure the poor have enough energy.
In a 19-page report, the two advocacy groups gave the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank a failing grade when it came to efforts to achieve global energy access by 2030.
"Development banks say they want to provide energy for the world's poorest people, but their actions don't back up their words," Heike Mainhardt, senior analyst at Oil Change International and the report's author, said in a Thursday statement. "These institutions must do better if we are going to meet the challenge of providing energy access for the poor."
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim issued the group's progress report during its plenary session Friday in Washington. A report released Thursday from the bank said some of the its economic prosperity goals are "achievable, but highly aspirational."
The advocacy groups call for increased funding for energy access, so-called off- and mini-grid clean energy projects and clear criteria for what counts as "energy access."