The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is accusing beleaguered World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz of trying to weaken references to climate change in the World Bank’s Clean Energy and Investment Framework.GAP has released an internal summary of a February 2006 World Bank meeting on the Framework.

The summary includes the following passage: “Feedback from the President’s office subsequent to the meeting asked the team to refocus the paper shifting from a climate lens mainly to a clean energy lens.” This development comes on the heels of accusations from the World Bank’s Chief Scientist, Bob Watson, that Wolfowitz’s handpicked Managing Director, Juan Jose Daboub, tried to “water down references to climate change.”

The scandal at the World Bank is quickly spreading to Paul Wolfowitz’s handpicked deputy, Juan Jose Daboub. First he is accused of trying to remove references to “family planning” from World Bank documents, now the Bank’s Chief Scientist, Robert Watson, is accusing him of trying to erase references to climate change from the Bank’s Clean Energy and Investment Framework.The World Bank’s private sector lending arm increased its support to oil companies by more than 75 percent last year, so it is no surprise that the Bank doesn’t want to face up to the problem of climate change. But are these really the people that you want in charge of designing a Clean Energy Investment Framework for the developing world?