Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the World Bank on Oct. 15 to stop obsessing about climate and get back to its core business of ending poverty. He called on the bank to remove its 45 percent financing for climate projects, arguing this “skews projects away from country priorities and distorts projects away from the goal of increasing access to the affordable and reliable energy needed to increase growth and productivity.”

For the sake of the world’s poor, the bank — and all international aid — needs to pay heed to this commonsense call.

Like the United Nations and many international organizations, the World Bank set on its climate path after the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, committing billions to climate and vowing to lead on green financing. Last year, it poured $42.6

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