Multilateral climate action

IMF’s WEO 2020 on climate mitigation: important, impractical, and naive

22 October 2020 Mike Scrafton Climate crisis, Global

The fact that the International Monetary Fund recognises the urgency of addressing anthropogenic induced climate change and the importance of reducing carbon emissions from human activity by 2050 must be seen as a welcome step. But the report is impractical and naïve in some respects. The next step needs to go beyond the high level of abstraction that smooths over the diversity of economic, political and climate impacts in local situations.

Multilateral climate action: assisting emerging economies and developing countries is right and smart

20 October 2020 Mike Scrafton Climate crisis, Global

Without assistance, emerging economies and developing countries (EEDCs) will continue to add increasing amounts of greenhouses gases to the atmosphere for decades, preventing the curbing of global warming and adversely impacting all countries. While EEDCs were always going to require substantial assistance from the advanced economies, the need for strong multilateral action has become more urgent.