<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">World Bank President Ajay Banga said Tuesday that he is working to reform "dysfunctionality" in the boardroom of the development lender, and pledged to refocus its mission to better address the challenges posed by climate change.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The former Mastercard chief executive told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that the bank should alter its current twin mandate of poverty alleviation and boosting shared prosperity to include climate change.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I think the twin goals have to change to being elimination of poverty, but on a livable planet, because of the intertwined nature of our crises," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He added that he was working to redefine the World Bank's business around what he called five key knowledge "verticals": people, prosperity, planet, infrastructure and digital.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Fixing the plumbing -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Banga, an Indian-born naturalized US citizen, was nominated to lead the World Bank earlier this year by President Joe Biden, and began his new role in June.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The bank has historically been led by an American, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been run by a European -- a controversial arrangement that has existed since the two institutions were founded in the aftermath of the second World War.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Banga has already made a number of changes to the bank's management since taking over, setting up a new 15-person private sector advisory board, and pledging deeper cooperation with regional development banks to tackle shared challenges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Tuesday, Banga vowed to "fix the plumbing" at the bank, which he said suffered from "dysfunctionality" in the boardroom.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The World Bank's board is made up of 25 executive directors appointed by its 189 member countries, who must balance the interests of the development lender with those of the states they represent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I want people to say when I'm gone that I left the bank working much better than when I got it, because then my successor will not have to deal with what I'm dealing with," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Climate change -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Proposals to reform the World Bank's balance sheet from countries including the US and Saudi Arabia could add as much as $125 billion in extra lending capacity if they come to pass, Banga told the audience in New York.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This would be a significant increase for the development lender, which mobilized just over $100 billion in financing last year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Banga has previously called on the World Bank to collaborate more closely with the private sector to meet the enormous costs associated with climate change mitigation and adaptation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Tuesday, Banga said the bank should carefully target where it wants to encourage private investment to help cap carbon emissions in order to have the biggest impact.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We need to focus on 10 countries where the growth of emissions will be so high if we don't change to renewables that all the work we do in the developed world to reduce the use of emission-heavy energy will be lost," he said, without naming them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">These middle-income countries are states "where there is some hope for the private sector, both in terms of scalable models and the like, that renewable energy could make money," he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In order to invite the private sector to participate, the World Bank should offer to manage some of the political risks associated with climate-related investments in these countries, along with the risk of currency fluctuations, Banga said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The World Bank group already has a political risk agency, but the foreign exchange risk is an issue that still needs to be resolved, he told the audience in New York.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"That's the way to involve the private sector," he added. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>