As the U.S. pulls its contributions to the World Bank's Clean Technology Fund, Salon.com features CGD senior fellow David Wheeler's research on coal projects that the World Bank would have financed through the CTF.
From the article:
"Wheeler wanted the Bank to guide its investments by a technique known as "carbon accounting." The economics of coal-fired plants look much worse, and solar thermal power plants much better, if you put a price on the amount of carbon dioxide emitted. But his protest fell on deaf ears at the World Bank.
The reception appears to have been different at Congress, where Wheeler testified in June 2008. In the spending bill passed last week by the House, the budget zeroed out $400 million dollars previously allotted by the U.S. Government to the World Bank for the Clean Technology Fund. No explanation was given, but the implication is pretty clear. With Obama in the White House, and Congress determined to pass climate change legislation, there's no longer a whole lot of interest in funding clean technology that isn't, well, clean."