Ajay Banga, President Biden’s nominee to lead the World Bank, wants the bank to focus on poverty alleviation and climate change — and warns that the world needs a massive investment from the private sector to adequately address both challenges.
Why it matters: The bank is under pressure from rich countries, and the Biden administration, to do more to fight climate change — but less-developed countries worry it will do so at the expense of its focus on health, education and poverty reduction.
What they’re saying: Banga wants the bank to do both.
- “I think it’s a fallacious argument that says, either-or,” Banga told Axios. “I have every intention of focusing the bank and its people on the idea that this is an intertwined challenge.”
- “For climate change, it’s trillions of dollars a year. For inequality and poverty alleviation and development, it’s trillions a year,” he said. “You just have to get the private sector to be a constructive part of the solution.”
https://www.axios.com/2023/03/29/exclusive-biden-world-bank-pick-climate-poverty