David Malpass is under fire for not having recognized the role of fossil fuels in global warming, during a round table.
The controversy over the climate convictions of the President of the World Bank is blowing again. Calls for the resignation of David Malpass (photo) are increasing. Friday, the person concerned assured that no member of the board of directors of the Bank pushes him towards the exit. The American participated Tuesday in New York in a round table on the financing of the fight against global warming. Asked whether he recognized that fossil fuels had a real impact, he refused several times to answer, before saying that he was “not scientific».
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Since then, in the face of pressure to abandon the leadership of the Washington-based institution, which defines itself as “the first international organization for financing climate projects in developing countries“, he corrected his speech. In a memo to staff and on CNN television, he says that “it is clear that greenhouse gas emissions come from man-made sources, including fossil fuels (…), agricultural, industrial uses. So we’re working hard to change that“. David Malpass was elected President of the World Bank in April 2019.
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His candidacy had been proposed, according to custom, by the current American president, in this case Donald Trump, to whom he was close. Holding the creed “america first“, liberal opposed to multilateralism, David Malpass was already labeled climatosceptic. Climate advocates consider the Bank too inactive on the subject and accuse it of still financing fossil fuels.
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