Sad, but perhaps not surprising.
“Wolfowitz attempted to censor World Bank report on global warming,” from Greenwire ($ub req’d):
Former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz attempted to shift the organization’s focus away from climate change during his tenure, according to documents made public through the Government Accountability Project yesterday.
Wolfowitz’s behavior is indicative of a political climate at the bank that was not receptive to discussing the threat posed by global warming, the documents show.
A Wolfowitz deputy attempted to tone down climate references in one of the bank’s main environmental strategy papers, the bank’s chief scientist, Robert Watson, said this spring (Greenwire, April 25).
The reluctance to discuss climate change was not solely a hallmark of Wolfowitz’s reign at the bank.
According to GAP, which tracks censorship of debate around global warming, World Bank environmental specialists attempted to publish a paper on greenhouse gas emissions as early as 2002. Wolfowitz became president in 2005.
“Our biggest obstacle has been that, politically, [climate change] has been very controversial,” said Kristalina Georgieva, the bank’s strategy and operations director for sustainable development.
Even with new support for climate change research, Georgieva said it will be at least two years before the bank starts measuring the impact of fossil fuel-related projects on the planet’s health.
“We are not moving fast enough,” she said. “It’s not possible to be moving fast enough” (Andrew Gumbel, London Independent, Aug. 14).
