A New Climate Economy

AuthorGita Bhatt
PositionEditor-in-chief
Pages2-2
2 FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT | December 2019
EDITOR'S LETTER FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT
A Quarterly Publication of the
International Monetary Fund
ON THE COVER
Time is running out to save our planet, and everyone has a responsibility to act.
Illustrator Davide Bonazzi’s December’s 2019 cover likens the threat of climate change
to the closing jaws of a crocodile, shown in silhouette against a steadily warming earth.
Carbon calculus P.6
Fifty shades
of green P.12
The adaptive age P.20
DECEMBER 2019
The Economics
of Climate
A New Climate
Economy
“EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT the weat her, but nobody does anything about
it.” e quip, attributed to 19th-century America n humorist Mark Twain,
might describe the current state of play on clim ate change. In Twain’s day,
it was absurd to suppose humans could do anything about the weather.
Today, we understand that we can a nd we must.
e changing climate, largely wrought by humans, is bringing rising
sea levels, temperature ext remes, and more frequent and harsher storms.
ese threaten to displace l ives, livelihoods, and communities, with clear
economic consequences, often at a high price t ag, around the world.
Simply put, climate is the biggest risk t he world faces. What ca n we do
to move from talk to action?
is issue of Finance & Development looks at the economic and na ncial
impact of climate policy choices. It points to concrete solutions that oer
growth opp ortunitie s, driven by technologica l innovation, sustainable
investment, and a dynamic private sec tor.
For IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, dealing with climate
change requires not only mitigating damage, but also adapting for the future.
is means pricing risk and providing incentives for green investment. Kenneth
Gillingham shows that in the long run, the costs of climate action may be
lower than we think. Ian Parry estimates that aggressive carbon taxes would
help individual nations meet their emission-reduction goals and scale up action
globally. Mark Carney and others show how harnessing nance can open
enormous opportunities—from transforming energy to reinventing protein.
In this shared crisis, everyone has a responsibility to act. Ultimately, the
world’s fortunes and those of future generations depend on the ambition
and urgency with which leaders collaborate to address the global climate
emergency today.
But there is hope. Today’s young people, like Greta unberg and others,
serve as reminders of just how capable huma n beings can be of remak ing
the world. It is their future at stake.
GITA BHATT, editor-in-chief
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
Gita Bhatt
MANAGING EDITOR:
Maureen Burke
SENIOR EDITOR:
Chris Wellisz
EDITOR:
Glenn Gottselig
DIGITAL EDITOR:
Rahim Kanani
ONLINE EDITOR:
Lijun Li
PRODUCTION MANAGER:
Melinda Weir
COPY EDITORS:
Michael Harrup
Lucy Morales
ADVISORS TO THE EDITOR:
© 2019 by the International Monetary Fund. All rights reserved.
For permission to reproduce any F&D content, submit a request
via online form (www.imf.org/external/terms.htm) or by e-mail
to copyright@imf.org. Permission for commercial purposes also
available from the Copyright Clearance Center
(www.copyright.com) for a nominal fee.
Opinions expressed in articles and other materials are those of
the authors; they do not necessarily reflect IMF policy.
Subscriber services, changes of address, and
advertising inquiries:
IMF Publication Services
Finance & Development
PO Box 92780
Washington, DC 20090, USA
Telephone: (202) 623-7430
Fax: (202) 623-7201
E-mail: publications@imf.org
Postmaster: send changes of address to Finance & Development,
International Monetary Fund, PO Box 92780, Washington, DC
20090, USA.
The English edition is printed at Dartmouth Printing Company,
Hanover, NH.
Finance & Development is
published quarterly by the
International Monetary Fund, 700
19th Street NW, Washington, DC
20431, in English, Arabic, Chinese,
French, Russian, and Spanish.
English edition ISSN 0145-1707
Bernardin Akitoby
Celine Allard
Bas Bakker
Steven Barnett
Nicoletta Batini
Helge Berger
Paul Cashin
Luis Cubeddu
Alfredo Cuevas
Rupa Duttagupta
Thomas Helbling
Tommaso Mancini Griffoli
Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti
Christian Mumssen
İnci Ötker
Catriona Purfield
Uma Ramakrishnan
Abdelhak Senhadji
Alison Stuart

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT