What is the IMF doing to help tackle climate change?
We are putting climate at the heart of our work—from country, regional, and global economic and financial surveillance to capacity building, to helping small island states with fiscal strategies that build resilience.
Containing global warming, known as climate mitigation, is a global policy challenge that we analyze through multilateral surveillance—because no country can address this issue on its own. For the 20 largest emitters, we now strongly encourage coverage of mitigation policies in our annual reviews of the health of a country's economy, called Article IVs consultations.
Article IV surveillance will also seek to cover adaptation in countries that are especially vulnerable to climate change. Managing the transition to a low-carbon economy will also be a topic for Article IV consultations, including for countries heavily dependent on fossil fuel production.
Several Fiscal Stability Assessment Programs (FSAPs) have already started to examine physical and transition risks through climate risk assessments. We have completed climate stress testing in two FSAPs ꟷ Norway and the Philippines ꟷ and work is progressing in three additional FSAPs (Colombia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom). Assessment of supervisory frameworks will start considering climate risk in the near future.
Climate change issues feature in our World Economic Outlook, Global Financial Stability Report, Fiscal Monitor, Regional Economic Outlook, and Staff Climate Notes. These have focused on a wide variety of issues, including (i) how to scale up private climate finance in emerging economies; (ii) the urgency of the green transition, the higher the cost; (iii) making a case for stress testing to climate risks and promoting climate-related disclosures; (iv) highlighting the economic impact of climate change and its policy implications on low-income countries, and on sub-Saharan Africa in particular; and (v) devising a strategy of how to deliver global emissions reductions while minimizing economic and social cost during the transition; (vi) developing a conceptual and quantitative framework for carbon pricing.
The IMF also co-hosts the Secretariat of the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, and collaborates with international organizations and fora such as the United Nations (UN), the World Bank, Financial Stability Board (FSB), and the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) ꟷ where we co-chair the “Bridging the data gaps” workstream. We work with standard setters like the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).
In the context of the allocation of $650 billion of SDRs, we have created a Resilience and Sustainability Trust to support long-term structural transformation.
Last year, we launched a new Climate Change Indicators Dashboard, in collaboration with partners including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, the UN, and the European Commission (EC).
To learn more about the IMF's work on climate change, please click here to visit our climate page.
Why did the IMF participate in COP27?
Climate change presents a major threat to people's lives and to countries' long-term growth and prosperity, and it has a direct impact on the economic well-being of all countries.
The IMF has a role to play in helping its members address those challenges of climate change for which fiscal and macroeconomic policies are an important component of the appropriate policy response.
Remarks of the Managing Director at COP27:
High-Level Ministerial Dialogue on the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance
What is COP27?
COP27 is the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference. For nearly three decades, the UN has been bringing together almost every country on earth for global climate summits – called COPs – which stands for ‘Conference of the Parties,’ or ‘COP’ for short.
In that time, climate change has gone from being a fringe issue to a global priority. This year is the 27th annual summit – giving it the name COP27. With Egypt as President, COP27 will take place in Sharm El-Sheikh. World leaders will arrive in Egypt, alongside tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, businesses, and citizens for twelve days of talks. Not only is it a huge task but it is also not just yet another international summit. Most experts believe COP27 has a unique urgency.
The IMF at COP26
Remarks of the Managing Director at COP26:
Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition Meeting