(Washington) The President of the World Bank (WB), David Malpass, has been under fire from critics since the beginning of the week, accused of being “climate skeptic”, a reproach to which he tried to respond on Friday without calming down calls for his departure.
Posted at 1:10 p.m.
It all started when former US Vice President Al Gore said on Monday that Mr. Malpass was “climate skeptical” and had failed to improve funding for climate projects in developing countries.
Invited the next day to speak on these accusations during a round table organized by the New York Times, the president of the WB refused on three occasions to say whether he recognized the role of fossil fuels in global warming.
“I’m not a scientist,” he ended up declaring, pushed by the public, preferring to highlight “the enormous effort” made by the WB to help finance against global warming.
His response outraged the specialized NGOs, who therefore called for his departure.
“We condemn the comments made by the president” of the BM, spokeswoman for the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre, said on Friday, recalling however that “replacing him requires the agreement of a majority of shareholders, you have to keep that in mind”.
“I will not resign, and I have not considered it”, however replied Mr. Malpass on Friday, questioned by the Politico media. According to him, “none” of the member states of the international financial institution has asked for his resignation.
He assured not to be climatosceptic, pointing out that “greenhouse gases of human origin are the cause of global warming”. “And our mission is to put in place projects and financing that have an impact” to reduce emissions, he added.
A statement he had already made the day before, on the CNN International channel, declaring that “it is obvious that greenhouse gas emissions are of human origin, in particular due to the use of fossil fuels “. “And we are working to change that,” he said.
“I’m not a climatosceptic”, he had insisted, explaining to have “confused” and not “to be always good when it comes to answering questions”.
But his justifications did not calm the critics: in turn, a group of scientists specializing in climate issues called on Friday for the departure of Mr. Malpass.
Especially since if the president of the WB defends the record of his institution in terms of the fight against global warming, some criticize him for not doing enough.
“I am worried about the World Bank,” said economist Joseph Stiglitz, himself a former chief economist at the WB and now very critical of the institution, on Monday. AFP, “on major issues, such as global warming, it has not taken the lead in the operations that the world needs”.
“We expect the World Bank to be an international driving force in terms of climate ambition,” insisted Ms.me Jean Pierre.
Series of scandals at the IMF and the WB
The political profile of Mr. Malpass is no stranger to the attention he receives on climate issues. Republican and Under-Secretary of the Treasury, in charge of international economic relations, of former US President Donald Trump, he was appointed by the latter in 2019 to head the WB to take over from his compatriot, Jim Yong Kim. , resigned.
According to a pre-established mode of appointment, the United States indeed chooses the president of the WB, while Europe takes the decision concerning the management of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The share held by the countries in the capital of the two institutions is the basis of this distribution, the United States and the whole of the European Union being the two main shareholders.
International economic institutions have been confronted with a series of scandals targeting their respective leaders, sometimes for reasons that are linked to past activities, thus raising the question of this mode of appointment.
The latest accusations date back to October 2021 and relate to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who is suspected of having lobbied to favor China in a ranking when she was Managing Director of the WB.
His two French predecessors, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and then Christine Lagarde, for their part were involved in judicial inquiries and convictions, respectively for sexual assault in New York in 2012 and in the context of the arbitration case between Crédit Lyonnais and Bernard Tapie in France.
Mr Malpass’s own predecessor, Mr Kim, faced criticism after awarding bonuses to several senior executives in 2014, before resigning in 2019 to join an investment firm.
He was also involved in the charges against M.me Georgieva, an independent report pointed out that Mr. Kim had also pressured WB staff to change data for China but also for Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.