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The head of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, is stepping down three years early to join the investment firm Global Infrastructure Partners, which focuses on investing in renewable power generation assets in developing countries, according to the Financial Times. News of his departure next week caught many in the financial world by surprise, but it also signals the growing importance and profitability of the development of green infrastructure.
The Times’ Owen Walker attributes this increase to more demand for renewables because countries are looking for ways to meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement. But more than that, it is the investors themselves that are looking to make their money “greener” — including institutional investors whose customers are demanding that their retirement accounts have a low carbon footprint.
It is an interesting move for Kim, who is a medical doctor by training, and co-founded the nonprofit health care organization Partners in Health in 1987 and also served as President of Dartmouth College. He has been President of the Bank since 2012, and had accepted another five-year term in 2017.
Why This Matters: The World Bank is one of the largest donors to infrastructure projects in developing countries. Its leadership has a huge say in how green those projects will be. The U.S. President — or his chief advisors — will say who is nominated, because the U.S. government is the largest investor in the bank, holding 17% of its shares. Who will President Trump nominate? According to CNN, Ivanka Trump is running the nomination process and Idra Nooyi, the former CEO of Pepsi, is the top contender. Nooyi was a mentor to Ivanka, and if selected, she would be the first woman to lead the Bank. The question is whether a Trump pick would prioritize climate adaptation and renewable energy projects.
The Texas freeze and subsequent blackouts have given the Biden administration the chance to show the country how it will handle natural disasters, and they’ve already done one thing much differently than the Trump administration: acknowledged the role of climate change. And now, due to surge pricing, Texans are facing utility bills in the thousands of dollars for what little heat they got.
Why This Matters: The Biden administration wasted no time declaring an emergency and stating it would review preparation for future storms.
by Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer Clumps of sticky oil washed up on Israel’s Mediterranean beaches this weekend after a tanker was suspected of leaking. Officials are calling it one of the country’s “most serious ecological disasters” that has already seriously harmed marine life, including sea turtles and a fin whale that washed up dead […]
By Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer In the chaos following Texas’ severe winter weather, some folks have gotten their wires crossed. Conservative politicians and pundits across the country have taken the power grid shutdown as an opportunity to condemn green energy in Texas and claimed that everything from freezing wind turbines to the Green New Deal […]
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