(Reuters) - The United States and Britain are threatening to withhold support for a $3.75 billion World Bank loan for a coal-fired plant in South Africa, expanding the battleground in the global debate over who should pay for clean energy.

The opposition by the bank's two largest members has raised eyebrows among those who note that the two advanced economies are allowing development of coal-powered plants in their own countries even as they raise concerns about those in poorer countries.

Financial Times, March 9th., 2010,

The IMF said that it did not take proper account of asset price booms when assessing Ireland’s fiscal situation in a paper today. The paper said that the IMF’s calculation of the structural fiscal balance of Ireland was broadly based on the OECD approach.

This is the IEG evaluation of the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA). The study assesses the conduciveness of a country’s policy and institutional framework to poverty reduction, sustainable growth, and the effective use of development assistance. ...more »

Advanced draft of IEG evaluation of the World Bank CPIA

by CEE Bankwatch, December 11st. 

Poland landed the mock NGO prize “Fossil of the Day” on day four of the climate negotiations in Copenhagen for actively blocking the proposed upgrade of the EU's emissions reduction target to 30 percent. [1] This award is given to the country or countries doing the most to obstruct progress in the global climate talks, with Germany and New Zealand trailing Poland on day four. ...more »

December 1st., 2009 

A new article by former president of Ireland Mary Robinson and Senior Fellow at the Miller Institute Alice Miller have written a new article about the social impacts of climate change. They argue that if the World Bank is going to be the default institution for climate financing, it can vastly improve its practices to live up to this role.

November 20th., by Bretton Woods Project 

With much awaited climate talks in Copenhagen in December, the World Bank and its supporters are positioning the institution to play a significant, if not dominant, role in future climate finance.

While interim UN climate negotiation meetings took place in Bangkok in October, senior Bank officials at the Bank's annual meetings in Istanbul emphasised that they would wait to see the outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks to decide what role the Bank would play.

However, in a panel discussion, Michele de Nevers, senior manager of the Bank's environment group, asserted that the institution is best placed to manage climate finance because of its ability to leverage funding and its strong fiduciary, procurement and safeguard policies.  ...more »

November 19th., 2009 by BIC 

In a speech titled “Building a Twenty-First Century Development Bank: New Challenges, New Priorities,” Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry laid out his vision for the role of the US and the World Bank in tackling climate change, energy investment, and economic development.

11 November 2009 letter sent to IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, urging him open up the process for producing a report on how banks can repay governments for the bailouts and demanding strong consideration of a financial transaction tax in the report.

by Dani Rodrick, November  11th, 2009

CAMBRIDGE – Why does the International Monetary Fund make it so hard for people like me to love it?

The IMF has said and done all the right things since the crisis. It has acted as quickly as any international bureaucracy can to establish new lines of credit for battered emerging-market countries. It revamped its loan conditions to fit the times. Under its capable managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and distinguished chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, it has been a voice for sanity on global fiscal stimulus in the midst of much cacophony. For an institution that seemed on the verge of irrelevance not too long ago, this is quite a transformation.

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