World Bank is unfit to manage new global climate funds, say 142 organisations

Ecologist

19th January, 2009

Environmental groups were pleased at the end of 2007 when the UN announced that its under-resourced adaptation funds - established to help less-industrialised nations adapt to the effects of climate change - were to receive a cash injection.

But they were dismayed to discover in 2008 that the organisation holding the purse-strings would be none other than the World Bank - not renowned for its track record in sustainable development.

Now, 142 organisations have signed a statement declaring that the World Bank is unfit to manage the funds. They argue that the funds would conflict with separate funds which the Bank already operates; that the Bank has serious conflicts of interest between tackling climate change and funding fossil fuel projects and deforestation; and that the organisation is undemocractic and unaccountable.

Lidy Nacpil, coordinator of the Asia/Pacific Movement on Debt and Development, said:
‘It is sheer hypocrisy for the World Bank to claim any role in supposedly assisting the South in addressing the climate crisis when it continues to finance environmentally destructive projects and policies.’

Read statement here

This article first appeared in the Ecologist January 2009