Trump Administration Pressures World Bank To Drop Climate Targets, Back Fossil Fuel Infrastructure

The World Bank’s work to tackle climate change is under threat as the Trump administration pushes the lender to ditch its green targets and step up support for fossil fuel infrastructure in the developing world, according to Climate Home News.

“Editing:Joe Lo The World Bank’s work to tackle climate change is under threat as the Trump administration pushes the lender to ditch its green targets and step up support for fossil fuel infrastructure in the developing world”

Climate Home News

Climate Home News says the World Bank’s key climate policy framework is set to expire in June, and that closed-door negotiations between shareholders and the bank’s management over its successor have stalled.

Climate Home News

It reports that this throws into doubt the future direction of the world’s largest provider of international climate funding to developing countries.

The article says the Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) was first introduced in 2021 and has driven an expansion in the World Bank’s funding for emission-cutting projects and support for vulnerable communities dealing with the growing impacts of climate change.

Climate Home News adds that the plan embedded climate considerations across the bank’s lending practices and committed the bank to directing a defined share of its annual budget—now 45%—to projects with climate benefits.

It also states that since the plan was introduced, the World Bank’s climate funding nearly doubled from $21 billion in 2021 to $39 billion in 2025.

Climate Home News frames the immediate pressure as coming from the US, describing the US as the bank’s largest shareholder and saying it has waged an aggressive campaign against the bank’s climate commitments since Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Climate Home News reports that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that the World Bank should abandon its “distortionary” climate finance target, claiming without evidence that it “undermines efforts to reduce poverty and spur economic growth.”

It quotes Bessent saying, “We welcome the coming expiration of the Climate Change Action Plan, and upon its long-overdue expiration, expect the bank to immediately shift its myopic focus on climate,” in a statement issued during the World Bank’s Spring Meeting in Washington DC.

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Climate Home News also says Bessent pushed back against the scientific consensus that human activities, and the burning of fossil fuels in particular, are the dominant drivers of global warming, and it describes the negotiations as entering a “crunch” as battle lines harden.

The article says European countries, backed by some Latin American nations and small island states, are holding firm in their push to see a version of the climate plan extended, while nations reliant on fossil fuel production such as Russia and the Gulf States have sided with the US.

It adds that the decision will ultimately be taken by the bank’s management, led by Biden appointee Ajay Banga, but with powerful advice from the governments that make up the bank’s shareholders.

Climate Home News includes a warning from Jon Sward, environment project manager at the Bretton Woods Project, who said that any watering down of the World Bank’s climate agenda would be damaging.

“Over the past decade until last year, the scope and depth of the bank’s climate work, though still imperfect, had been expanding. That feeling of progress is being called into question,” Sward told Climate Home News.

In parallel with the climate-plan dispute, El País reports that Scott Bessent attacked both the IMF and the World Bank at an event in Washington during spring meetings, saying, “Hacer que el FMI vuelva a ser el FMI otra vez”.

El País describes Bessent as saying he supports the IMF but “siempre que se atenga a su misión,” and it says he argued that in his view it is not doing so.

The Spanish outlet says Bessent’s criticism came the day after IMF economists cut growth forecasts for the United States and all major economies except Spain, blaming the slowdown on the trade war declared by Donald Trump.

El País quotes Bessent saying, “Debemos reconectar al FMI y al Banco Mundial con sus misiones fundacionales,” and it adds that he said the IMF and World Bank “tienen un valor duradero” but that “su misión se ha desviado de su rumbo.”

It also reports Bessent’s claim that the IMF now spends “un tiempo y unos recursos desproporcionados” on climate change, gender, and social issues.

El País says Bessent argued that the IMF should focus on balance of payments problems and make its loans temporary, and it quotes him saying the institution must sometimes have to say “no”.

The article further says Bessent criticized the World Bank by arguing it should use its resources “de la forma más eficiente y eficaz posible” and focus lending on the poorest and least solvent countries, while also saying the World Bank should stop financing countries that have progressed and left poverty behind by setting firm deadlines for exclusion.

Climate Home News ties the US pressure to a broader effort to redirect multilateral lending away from climate targets and toward fossil fuel infrastructure, and it says the World Bank committed to stopping support for gas extraction projects in 2019 but that ban has been reconsidered since Trump’s return to office.

It also quotes an expert with knowledge of the discussions saying, “The US strategy is to run out the clock,” and it adds that the expert said the US is using the June deadline to get rid of the plan altogether or to extract concessions on a weakened climate plan in exchange for something else like funding upstream gas.

Climate Home News

Climate Home News also reports that multilateral development banks led by the World Bank have been handed an increasingly central role in providing funding for climate action to developing nations, and it says MDBs accounted for over 40% of public international climate finance in 2022.

The article states that growing support from MDBs and shrinking overseas aid budgets in developed countries suggest their role is likely to have grown even bigger since then.

In another angle on the same spring-meetings pressure, The Northern Miner frames Bessent’s remarks as pushing lenders to pivot toward funding critical minerals projects in an effort to bolster a supply chain dominated by China.

While The Northern Miner’s body is truncated by a paywall message, it still identifies the thrust of Bessent’s argument as a shift away from climate change toward critical minerals.

Climate Home News also reports that Recourse’s just transition lead Rajneesh Bhuee said scrapping the bank’s climate targets and markers would be “worrying,” and it quotes her saying, “Imperfect as the current plan is, it provides a basis for accountability.”

The dispute over the World Bank’s climate plan is framed by Climate Home News as a high-stakes negotiation with consequences for how climate finance is allocated and how accountability works inside the institution.

““Hacer que el FMI vuelva a ser el FMI otra vez””

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It says the CCAP is set to expire in June and that negotiations between shareholders and the bank’s management over its successor have stalled, leaving the future direction uncertain.

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Climate Home News argues that while experts do not expect an immediate drop in climate funding, removing formal targets could weaken internal incentives to prioritise climate projects and reduce transparency over how funds are allocated.

It also says the US could gain a “big symbolic win” in its quest to hollow out international financing for climate action and boost support for planet-warming fossil fuels.

Climate Home News adds that the World Bank’s climate approach has faced repeated criticism, including activists accusing the lender of relying heavily on loans and adding to debt piles of vulnerable countries, and of inflating climate finance numbers by overstating the real climate benefit of its projects.

El País complements this by reporting that Bessent told the institutions’ leadership—Kristalina Georgieva at the IMF and Ajay Banga at the World Bank—that the Trump administration will use US leadership and influence to press them to fulfill their mandates and to ensure accountability for progress.

El País concludes with Bessent’s warning that “Estados Unidos también exigirá que la dirección y el personal de estas instituciones rindan cuentas para demostrar progresos reales,” tying the next phase of the fight to performance and compliance.