France will continue urging the World Bank to stay committed to its climate finance goals, despite mounting pressure from the Trump administration to shift course, newly appointed French development minister Eleonore Caroit said on Friday.
Efforts to address climate change also will feature heavily in France’s presidency of the Group of Seven industrial democracies in 2026, Caroit told reporters on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Washington.
She was appointed on Sunday to the cabinet of newly reappointed French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu as junior minister for Francophonie, international partnerships and French people abroad, and rushed straight to Washington.
‘Climate Is At Utmost Importance’
Caroit said she discussed with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent the US call for the World Bank to abandon the goal it set under the Biden administration to boost climate-related financing to 45% of its total lending from 35% previously.
“So we obviously continue to support the 45% objective,” Caroit said, adding that France wanted to keep targets that agree with the Paris climate accords that Trump abandoned for a second time in January.
“And for us, climate is at the utmost importance because we’re aligned with the bank’s objective of development and job creation, but it has to be jobs on a livable planet. Otherwise, why even think of jobs,” she said.
Possible Areas Of Agreement
In 2023, World Bank President Ajay Banga persuaded the bank’s shareholders to adopt a new vision statement with similar language: “A world free of poverty on a livable planet” to incorporate its new climate financing push and expanded balance sheet.
Bessent, who has derided the statement as “vapid, buzzword-centric marketing,” on Friday called on the World Bank to return to financing of coal projects, along with gas, oil and nuclear energy.
In a statement to the IMF steering committee, Bessent said the 45% climate “co-benefits” target “skews projects away from country priorities and distorts projects away from the goal of increasing access” to reliable energy.
“I think what is important is to have frank conversations and see where the disagreements are,” Caroit said.
She added that she was encouraged by Bessent’s engagement on energy sources and that he was open to renewable energy where it made economic sense.
Caroit said the US and France, which has more than 50 nuclear reactors generating more than 70% of the country’s electricity, agree on nuclear power’s status as a sustainable energy source.
The new minister also said France and the US can agree on climate adaptation and resilience development projects that prevent floods or wildfires, which can impact economic growth, and that may ultimately lead to energy transitions. These projects fall under the World Bank climate finance goals.
‘Need To Rethink’
“This is what we call climate and they can call it however they want,” Caroit said.
She said the US and France disagree on climate and many other principles, but both countries will work towards getting more from development in an era of tight fiscal budgets, especially for France.
“We all acknowledge that there’s a need to rethink the whole architectural and financial structure if we want to preserve the most essential development and to have more impact,” Caroit added.
(With inputs from Reuters
