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Nairobi, Kenya, 8 Mar (AFP): The United States’ candidate to head the World Bank, Ajay Banga, on Wednesday called for a revamp of the development model to better meet the challenge of climate change.
\nMr Banga, who is on a trip to Kenya, said the world cannot continue to “pursue the prior model of (an) emission heavy growth system,” and rallied for adaptation.<\/p>\n
“We cannot afford it, our children cannot afford it,” he told reporters in Nairobi.<\/p>\n
The 63-year-old Indian American was last month nominated by US President Joe Biden to head the global lender after its current chief David Malpass announced plans to step down early.<\/p>\n
The nomination comes amid a push for development lenders to revamp and address global problems like environmental issues more effectively.<\/p>\n
Mr Banga is currently serving as vice chairman at equity firm General Atlantic and was previously chief executive at Mastercard.<\/p>\n
David Malpass had been accused by former US vice president Al Gore of being a climate skeptic and of not having being able to strengthen the financing of climate projects in developing nations.<\/p>\n
Faced with global warming, “we must do more on adaptation,” Mr Banga said, urging partnerships with the private sector.<\/p>\n
The World Bank last month began accepting candidate nominations in a process set to run until March 29, with the bank saying that women contenders would be “strongly” encouraged.<\/p>\n
‘Champion of equality’<\/p>\n
Mr Banga, a Sikh who was born and raised in India, is so far the only declared candidate and has received the support of several countries including India, Kenya and Ghana.<\/p>\n
“I am not a woman but I do bring a lot of diversity.”<\/p>\n
“I am a champion of equality not just of gender, of ethnicity, of sexual orientation, of where you grew up, I don’t care about all that, what I care about is what you do, and I am an example of that myself,” he added.<\/p>\n
Kenya is Ajay Banga’s second stop on a global tour after Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n
He is planning to meet officials in Europe and parts of Asia including China, India and Japan, as well as Latin America in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
The US nominee has drawn criticism over his corporate background and gender.<\/p>\n
“We don’t need another World Bank president who will further corporate interests like fossil fuel and industrial agriculture,” Friends of the Earth said last month.<\/p>\n
The president of the World Bank is typically American, while the leader of the International Monetary Fund is customarily European.<\/p>\n
The United States is the World Bank’s largest shareholder.<\/p>\n
Last month, Mr Malpass said he would step down nearly a year early, ending a tenure that has been clouded by questions over his climate stance.<\/p>\n
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Nairobi, Kenya, 8 Mar (AFP): The United States’ candidate to head the World Bank, Ajay Banga, on Wednesday called for a revamp of the development model to better meet the challenge of climate change. Mr Banga, who is on a trip to Kenya, said the world cannot continue to “pursue the prior model of (an) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-212371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}