By Maureen Heydt The global community is running out of time and falling behind on financing shared climate and development goals, with the United Nations warning that 85 percent of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are either off track, stagnant or regressing. Likewise, efforts to limit a global temperature increase to 1.5C consistent with […]
The global community is running out of time and falling behind on financing shared climate and development goals, with the United Nations warning that 85 percent of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are either off track, stagnant or regressing. The economic and social costs of inaction will be catastrophic. Multilateral development banks (MDBs) […]
By Tim Hirschel-Burns The 2024 International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Group Annual Meetings will take place from October 21-27 in Washington, D.C. amid severe debt distress, lagging efforts to align global economic governance with modern realities, and a ticking clock to keep global climate and development goals alive. Several policy issues with important implications for […]
By Timon Forster In 2023, 3.7 million hectares of tropical primary forest was lost around the world, which amounts to losing almost 10 soccer fields of forest per minute. Deforestation endangers the livelihoods of millions of people, especially in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). The stakes could therefore hardly be higher for the international […]
International financial institutions (IFIs) have in recent years increased the volume of their financing in an effort to support national and global policy challenges—yet surprisingly little is known about the environmental impacts of their finance. A new technical paper from the Task Force on Climate, Development and the IMF investigates the environmental implications of the […]
By Bahar C. Erbas, Niccolò Manych, Kevin P. Gallagher and Rishikesh Ram Bhandary Retiring coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) is an effective solution for adhering to the temperature limits of the Paris Agreement. Development finance institutions (DFIs) can play pivotal roles in supporting governments in early phase-down initiatives. These approaches must consider social and environmental aspects […]
For fulfilling climate commitments and attaining net-zero emission goals, there is a global effort to retire coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) early. Given their unique business model and public welfare missions, development finance institutions (DFIs) have a crucial role to play in facilitating early retirement of CFPPs. What are the costs associated against three scenarios of […]
By Marilou Uy and Rishikesh Ram Bhandary Policymakers, especially from the Global South, now agree that achieving both climate goals and the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals will require reforming the international financial architecture. While the World Bank’s ‘evolution’ process that kickstarted at the 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Annual Meetings reflects a […]
Developing countries need to invest heavily to transform their economies to achieve sustainable development and address climate change, but they are falling behind in the shift to clean energy, enhancing adaptation and resilience, addressing loss and damage, and restoring nature. To meet these policy goals, debt sustainability analyses (DSAs) conducted by the International Monetary Fund […]
By Daniel Bradlow, Marina Zucker-Marques and Kevin P. Gallagher Many developing countries are experiencing what the World Bank has termed the “silent” sovereign debt crisis. It is silent because the international community has seemingly been hoping the creeping crisis will resolve itself on its own without ambitious intervention. Fifty-four countries are spending more than 10 […]