Kristalina Georgieva started working at the World Bank in 1993 as an Environmental Economist. She later became Director for Environment and Social Development for the East Asia and Pacific Region, and then Director in charge of World Bank environmental strategy, policies and lending. This strong trend lays out expectation and expertise which is central in the choices Kristalina makes.
As the new IMF leader, this portfolio came with the burden of acknowledging and fighting the climate crisis. Owing to this and the strong agreement from the Western European Bloc on this agenda, Kristalina’s focus in her term is deep-rooted in making policies linked to the environment. Her support and championing of a brave new stance toward the environment can be viewed as challenging because of the COP21 being controversial with regards to some P5 nations but she represents the European Bloc. The entire EU is supportive of this, and by putting her weight behind this, she is in line with appeasing the contrasting climate change narrative. One of her priorities at the IMF is to assist countries as they reduce carbon emissions and become more climate-resilient.
