PARIS (Reuters) – Following are highlights of what world leaders said at a summit in Paris on Thursday to boost crisis financing for poor countries, reform post-war financial systems and free up funds to tackle climate change.
ON REFORM
“Even with the capital that the World Bank and the MDBs (multinational development banks) have, there is clearly potential …to increase financing capacity,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, whose country is the World Bank’s biggest shareholder.
Yellen said an additional 200 billion dollars could be unlocked over a decade.
“We are certainly not ruling out at some later stage a capital increase. But I think that these banks need to function better individually and as a system first, expand their mission to address global challenges, better utilize the capital they have.”
ON NATURAL DISASTER CLAUSES
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“We would also like to see the World Bank offer borrowers the option to add climate resilient debt clauses to their loan agreements. These clauses would help ease pressures on countries if a natural disaster strikes,” Yellen said.
ON UNLOCKING PRIVATE SECTOR FINANCING
“We need to mobilise the private sector a lot more, there is a lot of liquidity, a lot of money in that world,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.
ON FAILURE OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL ARCHITECTURE
“It is clear that the international financial architecture has failed in its mission to provide a global safety net for developing countries,” said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas, John Irish, Elizabeth Pineau, Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Christina Fincher)