Speech

IMF Climate Capacity Development (CD) Partnership Forum—First Meeting

May 4, 2023

Distinguished partners, ladies, and gentlemen,

Welcome to the first-ever Climate Capacity Development Partnership Forum, and thank you for joining us today.

As we all know, the climate challenge is too large for anyone to address alone.

It requires ambitious national policies, determined multilateral action and unprecedented coordination between governments, donors, development banks, and the private sector.

It also requires trillions in climate finance for climate mitigation and adaptation; for the energy transition; and for green and sustainable growth.

At the IMF, we have put climate at the heart of our work – in surveillance, lending, data, and, of course, capacity development.

In a minute, my colleague Dora Iakova, our Climate Coordinator will share updates on the implementation of the IMF’s Climate Strategy—including our work on capacity development.

Capacity development is a critical part of our climate work because it helps ensure countries  deliver on their policy goals. Let me give you four examples.

• First, we develop and disseminate models and tools that integrate climate considerations and policies into countries’ macroeconomic frameworks. Our experts recently helped the Bank of Ghana incorporate climate into its Quarterly Projection Model.
• Second, we are working on making quality climate data available through the IMF’s Data Standards Initiative and the G20’s Data Gaps Initiative—because good data is essential for good decisions.
• Third, we work with countries to integrate climate considerations into existing financial sector tools. Climate risk scenarios have already been integrated in more than ten Financial Sector Assessment Programs (FSAPs), including in the Philippines, Mexico, and Uruguay.
• Fourth, we help countries attract and manage climate investments and establish risk-sharing mechanisms to leverage private capital. This empowers policymakers to identify, appraise, and select good quality public investment projects. Diagnostic tools, such as the Climate Policy Assessment Tool (CPAT), Climate Public Investment Management Assessment (C-PIMA) and Green Public Financial Management (Green PFM) are particularly important in this regard. The IMF has conducted 29 C-PIMA missions since April 2021, and demand from our members is increasing. My FAD colleagues will discuss this today.

We deliver Climate Capacity Development not only from our headquarters in Washington, but also through our 17 Regional Capacity Development Centers, and our network of long-term experts in the field. Today we will hear from some of those experts, both here in Washington and in one of our Regional Training Centers in Africa.

But we also want to hear from you on how IMF capacity development can help our members respond to climate challenges. We want to know what your priorities are, and how the IMF can better partner with you to deliver on them. Today is what I hope to be the first of many Forums, and I look forward to a very productive discussion.

Thank you.