(WS News) – The heads of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said they would work with the incoming US administration of Republican Donald Trump to continue to provide financing to developing countries hit by climate change.
IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva told a panel during the UN COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan that the global lender had worked with Trump during his previous term and looked forward to doing so again. “They have a mandate from the American people,” she said.
Georgieva said she was confident that the US private sector would continue to invest in green technologies. “It is the business proposition to stay ahead of the curve, and I have no doubt that this will continue,” she said.
The election of Trump, who is expected to pull the United States back from global efforts to fight climate change, has raised questions about the ability of the IMF and the World Bank – where the U.S. is the largest shareholder – to ramp up funding for countries around climate-related issues.
This year’s summit is meant to focus on raising hundreds of billions of dollars to fund a global transition to cleaner energy sources and limit the climate damage caused by carbon emissions by the world’s largest countries, including the US.
“We’re going to talk to him. That’s our job,” he said, noting that during his 17 months at the helm of the bank, there had also been changes in government in the bank’s four other biggest donors – Germany, France, Japan and Britain.
An electric-powered passenger ferry that glides above the water has made its public transport debut in Sweden.
Trump, who shuns multilateralism, has promised massive tariff increases on Chinese goods and other imports as part of his “America First” agenda.
Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO of UAE green energy group Masdar, said the United States remained a key market, despite changes in political leadership, and the company would continue expanding its footprint there.
