Climate Change
News
Budgeting for Sustainable Development – GFPN – University of Oxford COP26 side-event
How can fiscal policy support socio-economic development, and the environment? Join H.E. Minister Lee White of Gabon to explore new practical methods for understanding potential policy impacts during budget planning.
Land grab: How agri-subsidies encourage Irish farmers to cut back on nature
Irish farmers continue to see annual payments penalised for maintaining biodiversity hotspots despite concerns raised by the State over the climate and biodiversity crises.
‘Greta was right’: Trio of reports warns world at risk of squandering green recovery opportunity
Greta Thunberg’s accusation that world leaders are guilty of ‘blah, blah, blah’ in the face of the escalating climate crisis is ‘spot on’, according to a trio of new reports released today, which warn the opportunity provided by the coronavirus crisis to introduce sweeping fossil fuel subsidy reform and ambitious green stimulus packages is being squandered.
Reports
Ecological Steering with Value-Added Tax and Taxes on Consumption (FOES)
The current design of some taxes sets a number of ecological disincentives – for example, it encourages the consumption of environmentally harmful products and provides little incentive for more sustainable
Monitoring the Climate Impact of Fiscal Policy – Lessons from Tracking the COVID-19 Response (IMF)
This paper takes stock of the contributions made by these various trackers, identifies strengths and weaknesses of their methodologies, and draws lessons for assessing the climate impact of fiscal policy going forward. It finds that: trackers provided useful assessments of the (generally low) level of greenness and raised awareness; trackers’ methodologies, while valid and innovative, varied significantly with some important, if currently largely unavoidable, weaknesses; and the way forward should involve tracking the greenness of entire government budgets, rather than just their response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Biodiversity, Natural Capital and the Economy: A Policy Guide for Finance, Economic and Environment Ministers (OECD)
This report provides the latest findings and policy guidance for G7 and other countries in four key areas: measuring and mainstreaming biodiversity; aligning budgetary and fiscal policy with biodiversity; embedding biodiversity in the financial sector; and improving biodiversity outcomes linked to international trade.
Policy Briefs
Carbon border taxes: What are their implications for developing countries?
Although developing countries may gain significantly from global mitigation efforts in the long run, given their greater exposure to climate risks, in the short run they may have little incentive to undertake costly emission reductions. Can the CBAM incentivize them to comply?
Carbon tax, cross-border carbon leakage, and border tax adjustments
This column analyses the effectiveness of carbon taxes and border tax adjustment policies in reducing emissions and shaping firms’ decisions on abatement investment and firm location.
Food Finance Architecture: Financing a Healthy, Equitable and Sustainable Food System
Today’s food systems generate $12 trillion in hidden social, economic, and environmental costs. It prioritizes volume over nutritional value, fails to pay a living wage while creating sizeable profits for a concentrated set of players, and treats the natural environment as an infinite resource – resulting in massive waste and undermining the stability of the entire food system and global economy.
