British PM calls for a 'green' World Bank

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

DAVOS (AFP) — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called Friday for the World Bank to assume an environmental role capable of taking on the global challenges posed by climate change.

Addressing the global political and business elite gathered in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, Brown also pushed for similar operational reforms of other international institutions that had failed to move with the times.

"The IMF, the World Bank and the United Nations were built for the problems of the 1940s and can't deal with the problems we have in 2008," Brown said, citing the challenges posed by climate change, conflict-ridden states, non-state terrorism and the threat of global pandemics.

"I can't see why we should not move immediately to the World Bank becoming a World...