The heads of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that they will work with the incoming US administration headed by Republican Donald Trump to continue providing financing to developing countries affected by climate change.
IMF head Kristalina Georgieva said during a panel discussion during the UN climate summit in Azerbaijan that the global lender worked with Trump during his previous term and looks forward to doing so again.
“They have a mandate from the American people,” she added.
Georgieva said she is confident that the American private sector will continue to invest in green technologies.
She continued: “It is the duty of companies to remain at the forefront of development, and I have no doubt that this will continue.”
The election of Trump, who is expected to withdraw the United States from global efforts to combat climate change, has raised questions about the ability of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – where the United States is the largest contributor – to increase financing for countries concerned with climate issues.
This year’s summit is scheduled to focus on raising hundreds of billions of dollars to finance the global transition to cleaner energy sources and reduce climate damage caused by carbon emissions from the world’s largest countries, including the United States.
World Bank President Ajay Banga said Trump won by a historic margin, which commands respect, and highlighted the bank’s work to become more efficient and effective, while encouraging increased private investment in climate finance.
“We will talk to him. This is our job,” he said, noting that during the seventeen months he spent at the helm of the bank, there were also changes in governments in the bank’s other four largest donors – Germany, France, Japan and Britain.
Trump, who eschews multilateralism, has promised massive tariff increases on Chinese goods and other imports as part of his “America First” agenda.
The conservative Republican “Project 2025” agenda, which Trump has moved away from, calls for the United States to withdraw from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and seek only bilateral development and financial aid in line with American interests.
