The World Bank's Latest Identity Change: Climate Change Financier
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund will hold their yearly meeting in Singapore in the coming days. The G8 nations have asked the World Bank to develop an "investment framework" to guide climate change investments for the entire globe.
On this edition of Earthbeat, host Daphne Wysham explores the Bank's history when it comes to energy lending, looks at the Bank's current plans, and discusses alternatives to the plans put forward by the Bank.
In the first segment Daphne speaks to Antonio Tricario, a coordinator for the Italian group Campaign to Reform the World Bank. He is one of several dozen invitees to The World Bank meeting who's been blocked from entering Singapore by that country's government.
Joining Daphne in the Earthbeat studios to discuss the World Bank's policies on climate change is Elizabeth Bast, the international policy analyst for the Friends of the Earth in Washington, DC; Michael Marriotte, the executive director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service; and on the telephone is Patrick McCully, the executive director of the International Rivers Network.
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In our second segment, Bast and Marriotte are joined by Robert Goodland, the former chief environmental director of the World Bank; and David Batker, the founder and director of Earth Economics to discuss the World Bank's past, present and future investment policies.
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One of the strategies suggested by the World Bank to combat climate change is so-called 'clean coal' technology. This ideas has its supporters, and its critics. Joining Daphne in the Earthbeat studios is Dan Lashof, the science director for the Climate Center at the National Resources Defense Council, and on the telephone is Rob Sargent energy program director for the US Public Interest Research Group.
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