World Bank is looking for more funds to address climate change and other environmental challenges

The World Bank is seeking to vastly expand its lending capacity to address climate change and other global crises and will negotiate with shareholders ahead of April meetings on proposals that include a capital increase and new lending tools, according to an “evolution roadmap” seen by Reuters on Monday.

The roadmap document – sent to shareholder governments – marks the start of a negotiation process to alter the bank’s mission and financial resources and shift it away from a country- and project-specific lending model used since its creation at the end of World War Two.

The World Bank management aims to have specific proposals to change its mission, operating model and financial capacity ready for approval by the joint World Bank and International Monetary Fund Development Committee in October, according to the document.

A World Bank spokesman said that the document aimed to provide details on the scope, approach, and timetable for the evolution, with regular updates for shareholders and decisions later in the year.

The reform of multilateral development banks was a topic of fierce debate in recent months after developing countries faced mounting pressure from inflation, energy and food shortages fueled by Russia’s war in Ukraine, slowing growth, mounting debt burdens and growing vulnerability to climate shocks.

The pressures laid bare the inadequacy of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) structures – designed at the end of World War Two to focus on rebuilding peacetime economies – to deal with current global calamities.

Reuters

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