If anyone suggested the World Bank did not take global warming seriously, its bosses would bristle: only last October, they would point out, the institution issued a "strategic framework" laying out its thinking on development and climate change. This promised more emphasis on noble things like energy efficiency and renewable power; and more bank support for "sustainable forest management, including reduced deforestation."

Those words intrigued green campaigners, who were up in arms over a $90m loan by the bank's private-sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to the Bertin group, Brazil's leading beef exporter. As the greens observed, cattle farming is widely seen as the biggest threat to the Amazon's trees.

Doubts about the loan were not confined to angry tree-huggers. In a paper that was initially confidential but leaked on the internet, the bank's own Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) - which is supposed to watch the secondary effects of the agency's work - had argued that the credit posed "a grave risk to the environment".

The IFC overruled this advice, saying in January 2008 that its loan to Bertin would help the firm "in establishing sustainable operations throughout its supply chain, especially with its cattle suppliers in the Amazon region." But on June 12th there was a change of heart. The bank said it was pulling out of the Bertin project: it was no longer satisfied that its concerns over sustainability were being met.

There were yelps of glee from greens - along with harder questions about how possible it really is for the world's leading development agency to promote growth, satisfy its member governments and protect the planet all at the same time.

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