In 2021, the Vulnerable Group of Twenty (V20) made a call for debt flexibility, invoking insufficient fiscal resources to finance responses to health and social crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as urgent investments in climate adaptation. The service of public debt crowds out crucial investments that countries require to climate-proof their economies and establish […]
World leaders are facing a shrinking window to enact ambitious climate policies, as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) alone will not be enough to remain below the 2C global warming threshold. With the goal of enhancing global climate action, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has proposed an international carbon price floor (ICPF) arrangement, developed from the […]
The Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group of Finance Ministers, a dedicated initiative of 55 climate vulnerable economies, is at the epicenter of looming debt and climate crises which are threatening their ability to build resilient and low-carbon economies. When scarce public finances are mostly spent on debt service rather than on investments to build a more resilient […]
By Samantha Igo On September 4-6, 2022, leading experts and policymakers will gather in Bali, Indonesia for the Think20 (T20) 2022 Summit to discuss the latest research-based policy recommendations and matters of global importance. More than 600 authors have worked on policy briefs to deliver policy options to Group of 20 (G20) leaders on three […]
The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report underscored the need to reach net-zero emissions globally by mid-century to preserve a credible pathway to limit warming to 1.5C, with 135 countries have pledged carbon neutrality thus far. However, net-zero growth trajectories will entail a fundamental shift in the composition of the global economy, especially […]
The need to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic has given developing countries the opportunity to embark on an energy transition that supports green growth while rebuilding and reenergizing their economies. However, the divergent paces of economic recovery between advanced economies and developing countries are creating a challenging macroeconomic situation. In particular, interest rate hikes may […]
By Steffen Murau and Jens van ‘t Klooster As financial markets are again putting Italy under pressure, the new political party, Italexit per l’ Italia, promises an easy answer: leave the European Union (EU) to regain sovereignty. Economists, lawyers and political scientists regularly assert that joining the euro means giving up all monetary sovereignty. However, […]
Even though monetary sovereignty remains an important reference point in both academic discourse and international politics, it has – throughout past decades – repeatedly been declared “over.” Creeping dollarization subjects states across the world to monetary and financial decisions made in the United States, while local financial systems depend increasingly on globally active mega-banks, asset […]
International sharing of the risk of disasters through insurance markets lies on a spectrum defined by two ideal types: full risk sharing and autarky. The full risk sharing case features 100 percent insurance coverage for losses within a country and a high degree of international reinsurance to spread the risks globally. Domestic full insurance abstracts […]
Whether or to what degree climate-vulnerable developing countries have fiscal space is a key question confronting the international public finance community today. A new technical paper by Toby Melissa C. Monsod, Mary Anne Majadillas and Maria Socorro Gochoco-Bautista for the Task Force on Climate, Development and the International Monetary Fund studies the availability of fiscal […]