World Bank’s Kim Abruptly Resigns Amid Differences With Trump Over Climate Change

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim unexpectedly resigned on Monday, more than three years before his term ends in 2022, amid differences with the Trump administration over climate change and the need for more development resources. —Reuters, 8 January 2019

Tensions came to the fore when the World Bank held its annual meeting in Washington. Halfway through the summit, a London think-tank published a report in which the bank’s former head of research suggested the entire institution be shut down. The document, distributed at the meeting, was produced by the Global Warming Policy Foundation with examples of how, in their view, the poor are losing out. Titled, “The Anti-Development Bank,” the paper was authored by economist Rupert Darwall, one-time advisor to the UK treasury. —The Zimbabwean, 19 October 2017

This GWPF paper shows in detail how [cost-effective policies] are no longer adhered to by the current World Bank President Dr. Jim Young Kim. He has overruled the cost-benefit estimates of the superiority of coal-based over solar- and wind-based power generation produced by his own economic staff, justifying this by reference to a wish to cut global emissions of greenhouse gases. In 2013 the bank adopted anti-coal funding policies, which, as the paper shows, prioritizes the green environmental agenda over its core developmental mission of poverty reduction. I commend this paper to all those who are sincerely concerned with alleviating poverty – particularly in Africa, since China and India no longer need World Bank money or advice – and who are not seduced by the siren voices of the eco-fundamentalists. —Prof Deepak Lal, former Research Administrator at the World Bank and a member of the GWPF’s Academic Advisory Council

Global benchmark Brent crude will average $62.50 a barrel this year, analysts including Damien Courvalin said in a Jan. 6 note, down from a previous estimate of $70. U.S. marker West Texas Intermediate will average $55.50 a barrel, down from a prior forecast of $64.50. With current prices below those levels, Goldman sees them as undervalued at the moment. —Bloomberg, 8 January 2019

They may see themselves as avant-garde, but the greens have perhaps more in common with feudal clerics than they might suspect. Nothing so resembles the bad old days of religion than the green movement’s apocalyptic and authoritarian approach. —Joel Kotkin & Alicia Kurimska, The Daily Beast, 23 December 2018