42 out of 59 projects support waste incineration, including waste-to-energy, pyrolysis, and gasification. Another 10 involve refuse-derived fuel or processed waste burned in incinerators, cement kilns, and other industrial facilities.

US$35.89 billion in total approved project amounts are mapped across the 59 projects. Projects with loan components account for US$34.23 billion—about 95% of the total project amounts—while 23 projects include technical assistance that can enable policy reforms, private-sector support, and markets for false solutions.

Environmental and social risks are substantial. Around 43% of the projects significant, sensitive, irreversible, or unprecedented adverse impacts. Yet only 15 of 59 projects mention or include plans addressing waste workers’ concerns, and only 6 have a Resettlement Action Plan or equivalent. The Atlas identifies just-transition planning as a clear gap across all 59 projects.

These are not just numbers on a spreadsheet. They raise urgent questions about whose interests development finance serves, whose livelihoods are overlooked, and who bears the environmental and social costs of so-called solutions.

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