Photo caption: World Bank logo
The World Bank steering committee endorsed on Friday the lender’s plans for exploring options to expand access to energy, including possible financing for nuclear power. This is in line with U.S. President Donald Trump’s directives to increase energy financing.
The group also endorsed the gender and equality strategy of the development lender, only days after U.S. Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other development lenders had “mission creep,” straying from their core mandates for economic stability and development to climate change, gender, and inclusion issues.
In a joint statement, the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund Joint Development Committee asked the World Bank Group to provide energy access to 300,000,000 Africans by the year 2030.
The Development Committee stated that “we encourage the WBG explore other options for increasing affordable and reliable access to energy, including potential support of nuclear energy.”
Bessent encouraged the World Bank not to be distracted by “distortionary climate finance targets” but to instead focus on energy affordability. Bessent welcomed the World Bank’s plan to lift the ban on nuclear energy and encouraged it to support fossil fuel-based energy production.
The Development Committee noted that the bank has set a target of 45% of lending going to climate-related activities by 2026. However, it said this would not be enough to meet “clients’ requests for mitigation assistance, including access to electricity and transportation solutions with resilience, biodiversity and sustainable food production, and climate adaptation.”
TAKE A STAND
The panel’s declaration fully endorsed World Bank Group’s gender strategies and called for more efforts to promote equality.
The statement read: “We commend WBG’s programs to expand economic opportunities for female entrepreneurs, including their work to provide capital and human capital for women, girls, and 80 million women and women-led business.”
Svenja Schulze, the German Development Minister, told reporters that she had pushed for the inclusion of important issues like women’s rights and climate in discussions by Development Committee.
Schulze added that EU member countries make up 23%, while the U.S. accounts for 16% of the bank’s shares.
Schulze stated, “We have set the course for our bank over the last two years and we need to stick with it.”
Participants noticed that, unlike in the past, the United States didn’t speak first at the Development Committee Meeting. There was also little support from other countries, with the exception of Russia.
One participant who requested anonymity said that the U.S. position toward the World Bank is surprising after decades strong support. He noted that it was unclear whether Washington would fulfill its pledge to provide 4 billion dollars for the International Development Association (IDA), the bank’s fund to help the World’s most poor countries.
Bessent stated that the decision to follow through with the pledge made by the former president Joe Biden would be based on the U.S. Budget deliberations, and the implementation of reforms at the World Bank.
=== Reuters ===
