Biden Picks Wall Street CEO to Lead World Bank and Spring Arrives Early on the East Coast

Here's what happened last week.

Ajay Banga speaks at the India Economic Summit 2017 in New Delhi, India

Biden picks Wall Street executive with no climate experience to lead the World Bank

Two weeks ago, climate activists celebrated when David Malpass, a former Wall Street executive who doesn’t believe humans cause climate change, announced he would step down as president of the World Bank.

After Malpass announced his departure, the Biden administration said they planned to nominate a replacement with a strong background in clean energy. As Axios reported:

Team Biden wants a candidate who is committed to expanding the bank's lending facilities to finance more renewable energy projects in the developing world.

Climate needs to be one of its central missions, advisers say.

But last week, the administration announced a nominee, Ajay Banga, with virtually no experience in clean energy or climate action.

Banga spent 11 years as the CEO of Mastercard before leaving to join the private equity firm General Atlantic. He’s served on the boards of large corporations like Kraft Foods and Dow Chemical. 

In their announcement, Biden’s team said Banga has experience “mobilizing public-private resources” to tackle problems like climate change. But the only evidence they offered was his role as an advisor to the relatively new BeyondNetZero investment fund at General Atlantic. The fund’s chairman is former BP CEO Lord John Brown.

The New Republic’s Kate Aronoff wrote more about this weird pick here.