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Kristalina Georgieva, CEO of the World Bank Group, in Nairobi on Thursday © Bloomberg

Tom Wilson in Nairobi MARCH 14 2019

The World Bank will press ahead with efforts to tackle climate change despite the US withdrawal from the Paris accord and the likely appointment of a senior Trump administration official at the helm of the institution, according to its interim president, Kristalina Georgieva.

The US is the biggest shareholder in the World Bank and a big influence on the multilateral lender, making President Donald Trump’s decision in 2017 to exit the Paris agreement a potential problem

Environment

World Bank chief says no rift with US over climate change

Kristalina Georgieva insists commitments will not change despite Trump scepticism

for the institution.

But Ms Georgieva said that, despite Mr Trump’s well-publicised scepticism, the US had not sought to shift World Bank policies on climate action, which were fundamental to its programmes.

“The US, as a shareholder, has signed on to our capital increase package, including climate action,” Ms Georgieva told the Financial Times in an interview in Nairobi.

Measures approved last year by shareholders included a $13bn capital increase, internal reforms and new climate change commitments. The World Bank in December also doubled its five-year commitment to fund climate action investments to $200bn between 2021-2025 with the full support of the US, she said.

Concern over the Trump administration’s potential influence over the Bank and its commitment to climate funding hardened last month when Mr Trump nominated senior US Treasury official David Malpass as the American choice to replace World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, who stepped down in February.

The World Bank confirmed on Thursday that Mr Malpass was the sole candidate, alhough he must still

be interviewed by the Bank’s board.

Ms Georgieva, the Bank’s chief executive since 2017 who took over as interim president from Mr Kim, declined to comment on Mr Malpass’s candidacy before the board had taken a decision.

She added, however, that a commitment to multilateralism and tackling climate change were fundamental to the bank’s mission.

The US, as a shareholder, has signed on to our capital increase package, including climate action

Kristalina Georgieva

Officials in Washington have told the FT that, in consultations with different countries about his candidacy in recent weeks, Mr Malpass has sought to reassure them that the World Bank would stick to its environmental obligations under his watch.

Nonetheless, some officials remain concerned that Mr Malpass could more subtly undermine the World Bank’s climate change work — or at least not emphasise it as heavily as Mr Kim did.

Ms Georgieva was in Nairobi for the One Planet Summit, which was launched by French president Emmanuel Macron in reaction to the US decision to withdraw from the Paris accord and drive its implementation.

Speaking alongside Mr Macron and other heads of state including Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ms Georgieva said the World Bank would more than double its commitment to funding climate adaptation and mitigation in Africa from 2021-2015 to $22.5bn.

The World Bank’s push on climate funding comes as global carbon dioxide emissions reached a new high last year, with particularly devastating effects in Africa, where countries were being struck by prolonged droughts and violent storms. The past five years have recorded the warmest global average temperatures since modern records began, with temperatures around 1C warmer than pre-industrial times on average.

As emissions continue to rise, the focus of the bank — and other multilateral development banks — is starting to shift from not just reducing emissions, but also dealing with the consequences of living in a warmer world. These measures can include scenarios such as adapting to sea-level rise, or preparing for shifting patterns of precipitation.

“This is not a defeat, this is defence to what is already happening,” Ms Georgieva said. “More frequent and more severe weather-related events, more droughts, more floods, more storms.”

She added: “We are likely to see 100m more people falling into extreme poverty by 2030 . . . By 2050, 143m climate refugees, unless we deal more seriously with these shocks.”

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2019. All rights reserved.

Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington and Leslie Hook in London