Head of World Bank under pressure after White House condemns his 'climate denial' comments

[Uncle Joe]

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Malpass remains in post for now but under severe pressure, despite issuing an apology and trying to explain his refusal last week to publicly acknowledge the human role in the climate crisis.

The Biden administration stepped into the row on Friday evening, when the press secretary for the US president told journalists: “We disagree with the comments made by president Malpass. We expect the World Bank to be a global leader of climate ambition and mobilisation, as well as significantly more finance for developing countries… We condemn the words of the president.”

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Mark Malloch-Brown, president of the Open Society Foundations, former administrator of the UN Development Programme and deputy secretary-general of the UN, told the Observer: “We are relieved to see World Bank president David Malpass apologise for his statements. But a real apology would be much greater action by the World Bank to tackle climate change. The Bank is being far too conservative in its approach to financing, and far too unambitious in its leadership in addressing this existential crisis.”

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Talk had circulated for years that Malpass, like many Trump supporters, was a dismisser of climate science. He had already lost the confidence of many key figures in climate diplomacy, because of the World Bank’s failure in the last few years to mobilise the billions of dollars needed to help developing countries cut their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of global heating.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/25/head-of-world-bank-under-pressure-after-white-house-condemns-his-climate-denial-comments