Trump-appointed World Bank president who was dubbed climate denier to step down

David Malpass, the World Bank president with a history of denying the climate crisis, has resigned a year before the end of his term.

Mr Malpass, an appointee of former US president Donald Trump, sparked outrage last year when he refused to acknowledge that the climate crisis was real.

He announced his resignation in a LinkedIn blog post but did not explain why he had reached his decision. His five-year term was set to end in April 2024.

“This afternoon, I shared with the World Bank Group’s Board of Directors my intention to step down by the end of the World Bank’s fiscal year,” he wrote.

Mr Malpass earlier informed US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen of his decision, Reuters reported.

Mr Malpass said that serving as World Bank president had been an “enormous honour and privilege” and that he was proud of his accomplishments.

Financing, “including climate financing”, had reached record levels under his leadership, he said.

“By the end of the fiscal year, we will be well-positioned to feature sustainability more clearly in the mission of the World Bank Group, align the mission with resources, and set in motion an effective evolution to increase the institution’s impact on people in the developing world,” he wrote on LinkedIn.

Mr Malpass is due to leave the multilateral development bank, which provides billions of dollars in funding to developing countries, in June.

His decision comes months after he was widely criticized, including by the White House, for refusing to say that he accepted the scientific consensus on the climate crisis. After the uproar, he sent a note to World Bank staff acknowledging the reality of the climate crisis, according to Politico.

Secretary Yellen thanked Mr Malpass for his service.

“The world has benefited from his strong support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion, his vital work to assist the Afghan people, and his commitment to helping low-income countries achieve debt sustainability through debt reduction,” she said in a statement.

The Biden administration would nominate a replacement soon, Sec Yellen said. It is customary for the US to select the World Bank chief while the European Union decides who should lead its partner institutuon, the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Names of potential successors to Mr Malpass are already circulating.

Among them are Samantha Power, who leads the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and Rajiv Shah, a former USAID administrator under former president Barack Obama and the current president of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Mr Malpass became World Bank president in April 2019 after serving as the top official for international affairs at the US Treasury during the Trump administration.

The World Bank has been under increasing pressure to reform, taking more account of the climate crisis in its decision making. Reforming the system of international finance was a particular focus for leaders of developing and emerging economies during last year’s Cop27 climate summit.

Mr Malpass’s departure has been welcomed by environmental and climate campaigners.

“This is great news. It is hard to think of a worse fit for World Bank President than an alleged climate denier and the chief economist of Bear Stearns ahead of the 2008 recession,” said Bronwen Tucker, global public finance campaign co-manager at Oil Change International.

Earlier this month, more than 20 civil society organisations sent a joint letter to Sec. Yellen outlining reforms they would like to see at the World Bank including ending financing for fossil fuels and debt forgiveness.