Yellen calls for bolder World Bank action on climate change, global challenges

Yellen calls for bolder World Bank action on climate change, global challenges

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday urged the World Bank to map out “bolder and more imaginative” steps to better address global challenges such as climate change even as it continues to aid individual developing countries.

Yellen said the evolution of the World Bank and other multilateral development banks was urgently needed, given declines in progress addressing global poverty that began to appear even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The world has changed, and we need these vital institutions to change along with it,” she said. “In todays world, sustained progress on poverty alleviation and economic development is simply not possible without addressing the global challenges that face us all.”

Yellen said her recent trip to three African countries – Senegal, Zambia and South Africa – underscored the impact of fragility, conflict and climate change on those economies.