Amid the coronavirus pandemic, World Bank President David Malpass has been a surprisingly open advocate for policies to reduce global warming, curb economic inequality and use multilateral institutions to combat the worst impact of the pandemic.
Why does it matter: As a candidate for former President Donald Trump and a long-time skeptic of multilateral institutions, many feared that Malpass would weaken the World Bank’s climate change work or make it more America-oriented. But that wasn’t the case, as he explained on “Axios on HBO.”
The whole picture: Malpass runs one of the strongest financial institutions in the world, whose mission is to reduce global poverty and is often the last resort for countries struggling to stay afloat.
- “We’ve seen this inequality grow, grow … it seems like the system we have right now isn’t working.”
- “There has been less and less capital available for small businesses. And there has been a centralization of wealth across different economies.”
Where is it: In December, the World Bank raised its target and expects 35% of its funding to have “average climate benefits over the next five years”. It rose from 28% in 2019 and a target of 18% under Malpass’s predecessor, Jim Yong Kim.
- The Bank also strongly supported the implementation and support of the Paris Climate Agreement, Malpass told “Axios on HBO” that the Bank was “strongly involved in this effort.”
About inequality, Malpass was one of the most sincere critics of the current situation and the way in which central banks approached the issue.
- “Inequality is a great challenge for political systems and also for people’s health, for their livelihoods,” Malpass said.
- “Not much is happening to the people at the bottom of the scale. The biggest thing that helps them is education and jobs. And both were affected during the COVID crisis.”
Flashback: When Malpass was nominated in 2019, Stewart Patrick, a member of the Foreign Affairs Council, wrote that Malpass had opinions “antithetical to the bank’s mission.”
- Patrick also said that Malpass shares “Trump’s misconception that multilateral institutions are inherently in the face of US sovereignty and national interests and can be relied upon to undermine the Bank’s invaluable work around the world.”
- “He is exactly the wrong person to run the Bank at the wrong time,” Patrick concluded.
It appears that Kim left office three years earlier because of disagreements over the Trump administration’s position on climate change, including Trump’s claims that climate change is a “prank” and his plans to withdraw from it. the Paris agreement.
Last word: “Climate change, poverty and inequality are defining issues of our age,” Malpass said in a recent speech.