22 August 2007
Journalists confirmed that former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, personally intervened in removing the words "climate change" from Bank progress reports, and that it may be years before the World Bank considers greenhouse gas emissions in its projects.
Last week, media outlets confirmed the that the Bush Administration has consistently attempted to stop the World Bank from calculating the effects of its projects on climate change when approving major investments in industry and infrastructure.
The Los Angeles Times and the UK's Independent newspapers reported that documents released by the Government Accountability Project (GAP) last week revealed that in 2006 the Administration, through Wolfowitz, specifically removed the words "climate change" from a report entitled "Climate Change, Energy and Sustainable Development." The report had been requested by the Group of Eight (G8) and endorsed by vice presidents at the Bank, according to minutes of a meeting in February 2006 obtained by GAP.
Despite the vice presidents' endorsement of the report, Wolfowitz's office asked that the paper be reworked and that the focus be shifted "from a climate lens to a clean-energy lens." The edited paper was called "Clean Energy and Development: Towards an Investment Framework."
However, as the LA Times reported the practice of excluding climate change in the Bank's project calculations dates back well before Wolfowitz. As far back as 2002, environmental specialists at the Bank failed to get a paper they had written -- which had pressed to take into account greenhouse gas emissions -- published because of politics.
"Our biggest obstacle has been that politically, [climate change] is very controversial," Kristalina Georgieva, the World Bank's strategy and operations director of sustainable development was quoted by the LA Times.
Following the release of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 4th assessment report, and the wider recognition that human activity is contributing to global warming, the Bank is said to again be trying to push for consideration on climate change impacts of its projects. However, as Georgieva admitted "under the best of circumstances, it will be at least two years before the Bank starts measuring the impact of fossil fuel-related projects on the planet's health."
Sources