How Replacing Coal With Renewable Energy Could Pay For Itself
The world may gain an estimated $78 trillion over coming decades by making this energy transition.
Chart of the WeekFour Factors Behind the Metals Price Rally
By Martin Stuermer and Nico Valckx
As economies reopen in various parts of the world, the price of some commodities has soared, including the prices of prominent industrial metals. The extent to which the metals price rally may lose steam depends on how multiple factors will play out. […]
A Greener Future Begins with a Shift to Coal Alternatives
By Christian Bogmans and Claire Mengyi Li
中文, Español, Français, 日本語, Português, Русский
As the world economy emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, the consumption of coal is expected to recover from its sharp decline during the pandemic. […]
chart of the weekFuel for Thought: Ditch the Subsidies
By IMFBlog
Pensions, education, healthcare, better infrastructure, technology, and climate change: fiscal policymakers have their work cut out for them on many fronts. […]
5 Things You Need to Know About the IMF and Climate Change
By Ian Parry
June 8, 2018
Versions in عربي, 中文, Español, Français, 日本語, Português, Русский
A polar bear on shrinking ice in the Arctic: climate change means the world is getting hotter (photo: Sven-Erik Arndt/Newscom)
The world is getting hotter, resulting in rising sea levels, more extreme weather like hurricanes, droughts, and floods, as well as other risks to the global climate like the irreversible collapsing of ice sheets. […]
End of the Oil Age: Not Whether But When
By Reda Cherif, Fuad Hasanov, and Aasim M. Husain
September 12, 2017
Versions in ربي (Arabic), 中文 (Chinese), Español (Spanish), Français (French), 日本語 (Japanese), Русский (Russian)
Filling up at a gas station in California: demand for oil could plummet with the rise of renewable energy (Xinhua/Newscom)
A transportation revolution is underway that could completely transform the oil market in the coming decades. […]
The Overwhelming Case for a Carbon Tax in China
By Ian Parry and Philippe Wingender
Version in 中文 (Chinese)
A single policy could do it all for China. A carbon tax—an upstream tax on the carbon content of fossil fuel supply—could dramatically cut greenhouse gases, save millions of lives, soothe the government’s fiscal anxieties, and boost green growth. […]
In Mozambique—and In Africa—Rising Requires Resilience
By Doris Ross
Three months ago African leaders and policymakers assembled in Mozambique under an “Africa Rising” banner to assess the continent’s strong economic performance. But while the outlook for the continent remains strong, individual countries have faced problems and the uncertain global outlook continues to pose risks. Against this backdrop, what are the policies that Africa should pursue to sustain the positive momentum for the continent?
In reality, Africa Rising has never been about unbridled optimism; it has been a tale of strong growth tempered by serious challenges. And rising in economic terms is as much about sustaining expansion as about the dimensions of growth itself. The extended process of African development also requires increased resilience to shocks, and it is this resilience that may be tested by economic problems in some African nations.
Strong growth—and increased resilience—were the focus of the Africa Rising conference organized in May by the IMF and the government of Mozambique in Maputo. The nearly 1,000 officials, corporate executives, civil society representatives, and journalists who gathered for the two-day event discussed the difficult issues that must be addressed if Africa is to […]
Too Much At Stake: Moving Ahead with Energy Price Reforms
By Ian Parry
(Versions in Español, 中文, 日本語, Français, and Русский)
Energy plays a critical role in the functioning of modern economies. At the same time, it’s at the heart of many of today’s pressing environmental concerns—from global warming (predicted to reach around 3–4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century) and outdoor air pollution (causing over three million premature deaths a year) to traffic gridlock in urban centers. In a new IMF book, we look at precisely how policymakers can strike the right balance between the substantial economic benefits of energy use and its harmful environmental side effects.
These environmental impacts have macroeconomic implications, and with its expertise in tax design and administration, the IMF can offer sound advice on how energy tax systems can be designed to ensure energy prices fully reflect adverse environmental impacts.
We do this by developing a sensible and reasonably simple way to quantify environmental damages and applying it, in over 150 countries, to show what these environmental damages are likely to imply for efficient taxes on coal, natural […]
India Can Revive Investment by Learning from Itself
Many reasons have been put forward to explain India's investment malaise. Fortunately, India has a model of its own, as large variations in the business environment exist across the country. In short, the country can learn from itself.