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The White House on Friday rebuked the head of the World Bank David Malpass, who is battling charges of climate denial for dodging questions on the role of man-made emissions in global warming.

Under mounting fire, Malpass has rejected suggestions he might quit over the uproar — and has moved to clarify his position several times in recent days.

“Look, it’s clear that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are adding to, are causing climate change,” he told Politico Friday, affirming that none of the bank’s member countries had asked him to leave and that he was “not resigning.”

“The task for us, for the world, is to pull together the projects and the funding that actually has an impact,” he said.

Malpass is a veteran of Republican US administrations and was tapped to lead the bank in 2019 by then-president Donald Trump, who famously and repeatedly denied the science behind climate change.

Climate activists have previously called for Malpass to be removed for what they say is an inadequate approach to the climate crisis — but the chorus grew suddenly louder after his appearance at a New York Times-organized conference this week.

Asked on stage to respond to a claim by former US vice president Al Gore that he was a climate denier, Malpass declined multiple times to say whether he believed man-made emissions were warming the planet — responding, “I’m not a scientist.”

“We condemn the words of the president,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a White House briefing in response to the incident.

“We expect the World Bank to be a global leader” on the climate crisis response, she said, adding that the US Treasury Department “has and will continue to make that expectation clear to the World Bank leadership.”

Malpass has been seeking to course-correct since the row erupted earlier this week, and in an interview with CNN on Thursday he clearly acknowledged that climate-warming emissions were “coming from manmade sources, including fossil fuels, methane, agricultural uses and industrial uses.”

“I’m not a denier,” he told the network, saying his message had been “tangled” and he was “not always good at conveying” what he means.

But the uproar shows little sign of dying down, with the Union of Concerned Scientists the latest group to call for him to be “replaced immediately.”

Pressed on whether President Joe Biden still has confidence in Malpass and media reports that some US officials are seeking his removal, Jean-Pierre said: “Removing him requires a majority of shareholders, so that’s something to keep in mind.”

“The US believes the World Bank must be a full partner in delivering on the aggressive climate agenda, poverty reduction and sustainability development. Again, Treasury will hold Malpass accountable to this position and support the many staff working to fight climate change.”

– ‘I am worried’ –

Malpass’s initial nomination faced intense criticism but since taking the role he has been a staunch supporter of aid and debt relief for the poorest nations, in addition to consistently noting the dangers from climate change.

In a speech in June where he warned about the overlapping crises facing the global community amid soaring inflation and debt distress, he emphasized the need to “effectively address climate change.”

“It requires massive investments in cleaner energy, energy efficiency, and electricity grids and transmission. Gas flaring, methane leakage, and the operation of antiquated coal-fired power plants, with severe health and environmental impacts, continue with little abatement,” he said.

Even so, critics of the lending institution have grown increasingly loud.

“I am worried right now about the World Bank,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz told AFP earlier this week.

“Unfortunately the World Bank has not taken the kind of global leadership that the world needs right now” on climate and other critical issues, said Stiglitz, himself a former chief economist of the institution.

The head of the World Bank is traditionally an American, while the leader of the other big international lender in Washington, the IMF, tends to be European. 

Malpass is not the first leader of one of those institutions to come under fire for personal or professional behavior.

His predecessor Jim Yong Kim faced controversy over reforms and management of the Bank and then left early to join the private sector, while current IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva fell into hot water over changes made to data in a now discontinued World Bank report that painted China in a more positive light.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned Friday that his country’s worst-ever floods were a sign of climate catastrophes to come around the world, as he urged justice for developing nations that bear little responsibility for warming.

Unprecedented monsoon downpours flooded a third of the country — an area the size of the United Kingdom — killing nearly 1,600 people and displacing more than seven million.

“What happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan,” he said in a passionate address to the United Nations General Assembly, adding that lost homes, decimated livelihoods and deluged cropland had meant that for many, life had “changed forever.”

Sharif said injustice was inherent in the crisis, with his country of 220 million people at “ground zero” of climate change but responsible for less than one percent of carbon emissions. 

“Why are my people paying the price of such high global warming through no fault of their own? Nature has unleashed her fury on Pakistan without looking at our carbon footprint, which is next to nothing,” he said.

“It is therefore entirely reasonable to expect some approximation of justice for this loss and damage,” he continued, adding his voice to growing calls among developing countries for financial compensation from rich polluters.

– Climate compensation –

The issue of “loss and damage” payments is deeply contentious. 

Supporters argue that historic polluters have a moral imperative to pay for the loss and damage already caused by multiplying extreme weather events, which have not been prevented by measures to mitigate or adapt to global warming.

The idea has so far been shot down by rich nations, but UN chief Antonio Guterres endorsed the proposal a few days ago and it is due to be discussed at the next UN climate summit in Egypt.

Pakistan has estimated total financial losses at $30 billion, and on Friday its finance minister Miftah Ismail tweeted the county was seeking debt relief from bilateral creditors. 

Turning his attention to neighboring Afghanistan, Sharif urged the international community to heed a $4.2 billion UN appeal for humanitarian and economic assistance and release the country’s financial reserves, frozen since the Taliban seized power last year.

“Pakistan is working to encourage respect for the rights of Afghan girls and women to education and work. Yet, at this point, isolating the Afghan Interim Government could aggravate the suffering of the Afghan people, who are already destitute,” he said.

The United States recently set up an outside fund to manage Afghanistan’s frozen assets, saying it did not trust the Taliban.

On Kashmir, the Himalayan territory disputed between Pakistan and India since the two countries’ independence from Britain, Sharif accused New Delhi of embarking on “illegal demographic changes” by opening the Muslim-majority region to mass migration by Hindu Indians.

He called on India to “walk the path of peace and dialogue by reversing its illegal steps of 15 August 2019,” when New Delhi revoked Kashmir’s constitutional autonomy. 

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned the United Nations on Friday that climate disasters will not remain confined to his country, in the wake of floods that have devastated the South Asian giant.

“What happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan,” he said in his first address to the General Assembly, adding that life had “changed forever.”

Sharif drew attention to the injustice inherent in the crisis, with his country at “ground zero” of climate change but responsible for less than one percent of carbon emissions.  

“Why are my people paying the price of such high global warming through no fault of their own? Nature has unleashed her fury on Pakistan without looking at our carbon footprint, which is next to nothing,” he said.

“It is therefore entirely reasonable to expect some approximation of justice for this loss and damage, not to mention building back better with resilience,” he said, adding his voice to growing calls among developing countries for financial compensation from rich polluters.

Pakistan has been lashed by unprecedented monsoon downpours flooding a third of the country — an area the size of the United Kingdom — and killing nearly 1,600 people, according to the latest government figures.

More than seven million people have been displaced, many living in makeshift tents without protection from mosquitoes, and often with little access to clean drinking water or washing facilities.

World Bank President David Malpass said Friday he had no plans to stand down, as he battles charges of climate denial for dodging questions on the role of man-made emissions in global warming.

Climate activists had previously called for Malpass to be removed for what they say is an inadequate approach to the climate crisis — and the chorus grew louder after his appearance at a New York Times-organized conference this week.

Pressed on stage to respond to a claim by former US vice president Al Gore that he was a climate denier, Malpass declined multiple times to say whether he believed man-made emissions were warming the planet — responding, “I’m not a scientist.”

Under mounting fire, Malpass has moved to clarify his position and did so again on Friday, as he rebuffed suggestions he might quit over the uproar.

“Not resigning,” Malpass said in an interview with Politico, when asked if he had envisaged quitting over the firestorm. “Nor have I” considered it, he said, affirming that none of the bank’s member countries had asked him to leave.

“Look, it’s clear that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are adding to, are causing climate change,” he told Politico. “And so the task for us, for the world, is to pull together the projects and the funding that actually has an impact.”

In an interview with CNN a day earlier, Malpass had likewise acknowledged that climate-warming emissions were “coming from manmade sources, including fossil fuels, methane, agricultural uses and industrial uses.”

“I’m not a denier,” he told the network, adding that his message had been “tangled” and he was “not always good at conveying” what he means.

Despite his efforts at damage control, the uproar showed little sign of dying down, with the Union of Concerned Scientists the latest group to call for him to be replaced.

“People living in the Global South deserve to have the World Bank led by a fierce climate advocate, not someone who hasn’t spent enough time with the bank’s deep bench of scientists and experts to understand the most basic facts about the causes of climate change,” the group’s president, Johanna Chao Kreilick, said in a statement.

“Mr. Malpass should be replaced immediately,” she added.

– ‘I am worried’ –

While Malpass sought to emphasize the bank’s action on climate, its critics have grown increasingly loud.

“I am worried right now about the World Bank,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz told AFP earlier this week.

On critical issues including climate change, he said, “unfortunately the World Bank has not taken the kind of global leadership that the world needs right now.”

The head of the World Bank is traditionally an American, while the leader of the other big international lender in Washington, the IMF, tends to be European. 

Malpass is a veteran of Republican administrations in the United States and was appointed in 2019 while Donald Trump, who famously and repeatedly denied the science behind climate change, was president.

His term ends in 2024 and he can only be removed by a vote of the World Bank’s board.