World Bank president David Malpass has said that he is keeping an "intense" focus on the bank's efforts to address climate change and embracing the US Treasury's call to dramatically boost lending capacity to address this and other global problems.
Two weeks after Mr Malpass came under fire for declining to say whether he accepted the scientific consensus on global warming, he said that there is very strong support from the World Bank board, from staff and from the US government for the lender's climate initiatives that he is leading.
Asked if he expected to complete his five-year term despite some US Democratic legislators urging President Joe Biden to seek his replacement, Mr Malpass said: "World Bank staff and people are very focused on getting solutions to problems around the world, including the climate challenges. One of my goals is to have that focus be very strong and intense."
He said there were a lot of climate tasks and "that we're in the middle of that it's really important to keep pushing forward on and completing".
Mr Malpass, a former US Treasury official, was nominated by then-president Donald Trump in 2019 for a five-year term that ends in April 2024. The US is the largest shareholder of the World Bank, which has been led by an American since it began operations in 1946.
His comments came on the eve of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings, at which climate, issues relating to the war in Ukraine, pressures from inflation, debt distress and food insecurity will be among major topics.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday urged the World Bank and other multilateral development lenders to revamp their business models and dramatically scale up lending to address pressing global needs, with climate change and the transition to clean energy at the top of the list.
She said the World Bank should produce an "evolution road map" by December to meet these challenges.
Mr Malpass said he was fully supportive of Ms Yellen's directive and that the bank was already working with shareholders to stretch its resources to boost lending in the face of "a major set of crises".
"She's raising very good points about the need for evolution of the international financial institutions in the face of a crisis and also in the face of a great deal of change going on in the world, so we embrace that," Mr Malpass said.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company profile
Name: Dukkantek
Started: January 2021
Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani
Based: UAE
Number of employees: 140
Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service)
Investment: $5.2 million
Funding stage: Seed round
Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office
As You Were
Liam Gallagher
(Warner Bros)
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final second leg:
Juventus 1 Ajax 2
Ajax advance 3-2 on aggregate
Company%20profile
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
