Donors, recipients to control climate fund, says World Bank
DUBAI—Donor countries to an ambitious new climate change fund, along with its recipients, will likely control how its financial resources are spent, World Bank president Ajay Banga said Friday.
“The reality is the Bank is currently not planning to play the role of allocating the money,” he told an event at the UN’s COP28 summit in Dubai.
“That will be done by a governing board that needs to be created, that should have representation from the donor countries as well as the recipient countries,” he added.
Around $700 million has been pledged to the new “loss and damage” fund for countries impacted by climate change since it was approved by nations attending the COP28 climate summit in Dubai on Thursday.
The amount so far falls well short of the $100 billion developing nations say are needed to meet the costs of changing climate, but more pledges are expected in coming days.
The World Bank will most likely play a limited role in the loss and damage fund confined to managing its day-to-day operations, Banga said.
The development lender is frequently criticized by developing countries for the outsized role that major Western economies play in its governance.
Under an unofficial agreement between Europe and the United States, the World Bank has been led since its creation by a US citizen, while the International Monetary Fund has been managed by a European. —AFP
