Malpas avoided giving a clear answer three times during a climate week event in New York on Tuesday when asked if he accepted the reality of human-driven climate change, eventually saying he was “not a scientist.” On Thursday, Malpas tried to reverse course, telling CNN that it was “clear that greenhouse gas emissions are from human-made sources” and that he was “not in denial.” That reversal followed a barrage of criticism against Malpas, who has come under constant attack over the World Bank’s record under his leadership. The bank provides loans and grants to poorer countries and is seen as vital in distributing money to the developing world to help curb global warming as its economies grow. It is the largest provider of multilateral climate finance, according to OECD data. But it did not join the numerous countries and other development banks that pledged last year to end public funding for coal, oil and gas abroad by the end of 2022, and the climate plan does not include a deadline for phasing out direct and indirect fossil fuel financing. Jochen Flaschbarth, the deputy minister at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, pointed out to the United Nations scientific body about global warming. “It worries us [these] mixed signals on climate change science from the top of the World Bank,” he tweeted. The bank is “not using its institutional position to lead global efforts on climate change,” said Sonia Dunlop, an expert on multilateral development banks at the independent think-tank E3G. “They have the ability to really lead global efforts and change the global financial system to help us implement the Paris Agreement. They just don’t lead that category.” The growing discontent is likely to pile pressure on the bank’s shareholders, member countries, ahead of the COP27 UN climate summit in November. The US is the largest shareholder and traditionally appoints the president of the World Bank. Malpas, 66, was appointed by former US President Donald Trump. His term ends in April 2024. The US Treasury said on Thursday it expected the bank to be “a global leader of climate ambition”, something it said it would “make clear” to the group’s leadership. Other countries will likely follow the U.S. lead, Dunlop said. “If the Treasury Department and the White House were waiting for an excuse [to replace Malpass]they have it now.” US climate envoy John Kerry will not focus on Malpas’ position this week, but has called for broader reform of multilateral development banks. “He had been pushing for months,” he said, for an overhaul of the international financial institutions established as a result of the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement, including the IMF and what became the World Bank Group.

With just weeks to go before COP27, the World Bank is making it difficult for major development banks to draft a joint climate statement to present at the November summit, according to two people familiar with the matter. This follows a push by the World Bank last year to shorten and water down a joint development bank statement, as reported by the Financial Times. The development banks’ annual joint report on climate finance, usually published mid-year, has also not been published. The World Bank Group said this month it had delivered a record $31.7 billion in 2022 to help countries deal with climate change, up 19 percent from the previous year. “Under the leadership of David Malpas, the World Bank Group has doubled climate finance, published an ambitious Climate Change Action Plan, and launched country-level diagnostics to support countries’ climate and development goals,” he reported on Thursday. However, the level of funding has been far below what experts believe is needed. Former Vice President Al Gore, who has long called for Malpas to step down, called him a “climate denier” this week. Gore said the bank was not stepping in enough to help finance the clean energy transition in developing economies. “Given that nearly 90 percent of increased emissions in the future will come from developing countries, we must remove the higher levels of risk from accessing capital in these developing countries,” Gore said. “That’s the job of the World Bank, to coordinate the other multilateral development banks, and they’re just not doing it.” For FT coverage of New York’s climate week, go to Climate Capital and Moral Money. Follow @ftclimate on Instagram

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