At IMF-World Bank talks, small steps in climate finance

MARRAKESH, Morocco, Oct 14, 2023 (AFP) - The IMF and World Bank have been holding their first annual meetings in Africa in 50 years under pressure to reform a system too outdated to properly help poor nations battered by the effects of climate change.

The heads of the IMF and World Bank outlined their efforts to refocus on climate in Marrakesh, Morocco, but change is not coming fast enough for activists and officials who fear the planet is running out of time.

The 78-year-old system is "outdated, dysfunctional and unjust," said Kenyan President William Ruto, the heads of the African Union Commission and African Development Bank, and the chief executive of the Global Center on Adaptation said.

In Marrakesh, people marched holding signs saying "make polluters pay".

Campaigners even bought space on street billboards -- one featured an image of new World Bank President Ajay Banga that also urged him to "be champion for people and planet."

Banga has vowed to make climate a priority since he took over in June from David Malpass, a former US Treasury official who stepped down early from his five-year term following questions about his position on global warming.

Banga said that the World Bank has adopted a new mission "to create a world free of poverty on a liveable planet." He outlined ways to encourage countries to tackle climate change.

"Uruguay became the first country to take advantage of reduced interest rates as a direct result of meeting climate performance targets," Banga said.

"We're investigating if we can reduce interest rates (of countries) to incentivise exiting from coal as part of energy transitions," he said.

The global lender has also taken measures that could increase its funding capacity by $150 billion over the next decade. But Banga has warned that the bank would need much more to help nations combat a "perfect storm" of challenges that include a climate crisis, a slow economic recovery, food insecurity and conflict.