World Bank President
In February 2019, Trump announced Malpass as the nominee for President of the World Bank, succeeding Jim Yong Kim, who had announced in January 2019 that he would be stepping down three years prior to the end of his second five-year term. Malpass was unanimously approved by the executive board on April 5, 2019, and began his term on April 9. During the start of his tenure, Malpass focused in his early public comments on the global economy and debt transparency.
Malpass spent a year realigning the World Bank's staff to better meet client countries' real needs. He also stabilized the institution, and reorganized the disarray that had been left by his predecessor, Kim. By the end of 2022 he had nearly doubled the bank's lending from what it had been when he took over. By the end of 2022 he had also doubled its climate financing, and oversaw a growing portfolio of loans designed to help countries adapt to climate change and transition to renewable power.
During his tenure, he led the World Bank in lending more than $150 billion in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and rising food and energy prices. He also helped low-income countries achieve debt sustainability through debt reduction, and pressured China to provide more debt relief for developing nations.
In his first two years as World Bank president, he treaded carefully when discussing the causes of global warming. After the inauguration of Joe Biden in early 2021, American policy shifted towards prioritizing efforts against climate change, and Malpass increasingly began working and speaking on climate policy. In April 2021, the World Bank released a five-year Climate Change Action Plan that pledged 35% of World Bank financing to climate co-benefits and 50% of its climate financing to climate change adaptation, and pledged to fully align the World Bank's financing goals with the Paris Agreement by 2023. The plan was praised, with some concern that 35% could be too low or that the plan did not halt all World Bank fossil fuel projects.
On September 20, 2022, former U.S. vice president and environmentalist Al Gore labelled Malpass a climate change denier and called for Biden to replace him during an event focusing on climate change hosted by The New York Times. Appearing separately from Gore at the event, Malpass was asked three times by journalist David Gelles if he accepted the scientific consensus on climate change that "the man-made burning of fossil fuels is rapidly and dangerously warming the planet"; Malpass replied, "I'm not a scientist." This answer prompted criticism from climate policy makers such as Rachel Kyte and Mark Carney, and calls for his resignation from the Rocky Mountain Institute and Christiana Figueres, among others. On September 21, the United States Department of the Treasury issued a statement that it expected World Bank leadership to take a leading role on climate issues. On September 22, Malpass said in both an internal memo to World Bank staff and on an interview with CNN International that he accepted the scientific consensus on human activity causing climate change and that he was not a "denier".
In mid-February 2023, Malpass announced his intention to end his term as president of the bank by the end of the bank's fiscal year in June 2023.
