Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent criticized the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday for focusing too much on climate change, and pressed the World Bank to prioritize investments in fossil fuels.
“The IMF was once unwavering in its mission of promoting global monetary cooperation and financial stability,” Bessent said in a speech as the IMF and World Bank held their spring meetings in Washington. “Now it devotes disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender and social issues. These issues are not the IMF’s mission.”
He highlighted the role of the World Bank and IMF on promoting economic development and poverty reduction, but he argued that they’ve suffered from “mission creep” related to social issues that President Donald Trump describes as “woke” ideology.
Bessent called out the World Bank for “vapid, buzzword-centric marketing” and encouraged it to focus on increasing energy access in developing countries using technologies that can “sustain economic growth rather than seek to meet distortionary climate finance targets.”
