There will be water and food fights everywhere.

Why is it that when it comes to our most cherished social goal [health care], we not only tolerate poor execution, sometimes we even celebrate it?

Ending poverty and ensuring sustainability are the defining challenges of our time. Energy is central to both of them.

If we do not act to curb climate change immediately, we will leave our children and grandchildren an unrecognizable planetIt is the poor, those least responsible for climate change and least able to afford adaptation, who would suffer the most.

I want to eradicate poverty. I think that theres a tremendous passion for that inside the World Bank.

When you're working on development issues, optimism is not always based on rational analysis, often it is a moral choice.

Today there are a lot places where people say they're just hopeless. If I can come from a hopeless country, get an education, become a hyphenated American and become president of the World Bank, it's my moral duty to make sure that every single person on the planet has that opportunity.