When the Climate Boss is a Climate Denier

The World Bank has a dual mission:

1. To end extreme poverty: By reducing the share of the global population that lives in extreme poverty to 3 percent.
2. To promote shared prosperity: By increasing the incomes of the poorest 40 percent of people in every country.

Unfortunately, and unacceptably, David Malpass, leading the World Bank since 2019, is questioning the foundational needs of the organization he claims to lead.

Climate and Growth

The World Bank cannot do its job without tens of trillions in hard science, risky investments explicitly targeting climate change. Malpass's organization must be at the center of a coordinated global response. Gore:

“Since almost 90 percent of the increased emissions going forward are coming from developing countries, we have to take the top layers of risk off the access to capital in these developing countries,” he said. “That’s the job of the World Bank.”

Even if adults could agree that the sky was blue and gravity exists, collective action on climate change would be nearly impossible in practice. The reasons are many, but you can start here, here, and here.

But ... still, in 2022, not everyone believes in science.

Even — or especially — the "I'm not a scientist" guy appointed by Trump to run the World Bank. When asked for his thoughts on the climate crisis, Trump's guy responded with weasel words: "What we need to do is move forward with impactful projects."

MAGA's whole ignorance-is-cool thing was lame from the beginning, but it needs to go away for good. I vote to start with this guy.