{
  "title": "Opening Remarks— COVID-19: Opportunities for a Green Recovery",
  "publication": "IMF News, May 22, 2020",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2020/05/22/sp052220-opening-remark-zhang",
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  "summary": "Speaker: Tao Zhang, IMF Deputy Managing Director.",
  "publishDate": "2020-05-22",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Context and framing",
      "content": "- Speaker: Tao Zhang, IMF Deputy Managing Director.\n- Event: Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Web Dialogue.\n- Date: May 22, 2020.\n- Central premise: The COVID-19 pandemic is acute and immediate; climate change is slower burning but equally critical. Economic policy choices made now will crucially affect long-term climate outcomes, so recovery efforts should promote a “green recovery.”"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Key priorities and policy recommendations",
      "content": "- Develop an ambitious medium-term climate plan for the UN Climate Change Conference next year; the EU is cited as setting ambitious targets in the Green Deal.\n- Use public support wisely:\n  - Prioritize green investment.\n  - Make financial lifelines to carbon-intensive companies conditional on commitments to reduce carbon emissions.\n  - Fiscal context note: transitioning to a low-carbon world requires $2.3 trillion in clean energy investment each year.\n    - The $2.3 trillion estimate includes the current investment of $1.8 trillion plus additional investment needs of $0.5 trillion.\n- Put the right price on carbon:\n  - Existing carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes impose an average price of only $2 per ton.\n  - Measures equivalent to a global carbon price of at least $75 per ton by 2030 will be needed to keep global warming under 2 degrees Celsius.\n- Promote green finance:\n  - Use targeted guarantees to mobilize private finance for green investment.\n  - Mandate improved disclosure of climate risks in lending and investment portfolios for banks receiving public support.\n  - Improve pricing of climate risk; IMF analysis underscores that climate-related disasters have so far had little effect on equity markets.\n- Promote a just transition:\n  - Assist vulnerable households, workers, regions, and trade-exposed or fuel producing firms.\n  - Use carbon pricing revenues in broad tax reductions or public investments that boost growth and benefit all households.\n- Coordinate internationally:\n  - Stabilizing the climate system requires going well beyond the Paris Accord.\n  - The IMF proposed complementing Paris commitments with a carbon price floor arrangement among major stakeholders (as in the October 2019 Fiscal Monitor)."
    },
    {
      "heading": "IMF role and follow-up actions",
      "content": "- The IMF is scaling up support to member countries with policy advice, financial resources, and a global platform for joint action.\n- The Managing Director has placed climate change high on the IMF agenda once the immediate crisis has passed.\n- Within Europe, the IMF is preparing an analytic paper on Climate Policies in the EU to inform discussions with member countries."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Supporting references cited in remarks",
      "content": "- IMF Special Series Note: Fiscal Policies to Respond to COVID-19: “Greening the Recovery,” April 20, 2020.\n- October 2019 Fiscal Monitor (basis for $2.3 trillion estimate and policy proposals).\n- Forthcoming IMF publication—April 2020 Global Financial Stability Report, Chapter 5: “Physical Risk and Equity Prices.”\n\nOpening Remarks— COVID-19: Opportunities for a Green Recovery — Tao Zhang, May 22, 2020.\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- Greening the Recovery\n  - Greening the Recovery (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Greening the Recovery (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\n References\n\n- Tao Zhang\n- Speeches\n- PRESS CENTER\n- https://www.imf.org/en/home\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2020/05/22/sp052220-opening-remark-zhang"
    }
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    "Published: May 22, 2020",
    "Speaker: Tao Zhang, IMF Deputy Managing Director.",
    "Event: Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Web Dialogue.",
    "Date: May 22, 2020.",
    "Central premise: The COVID-19 pandemic is acute and immediate; climate change is slower burning but equally critical. Economic policy choices made now will crucially affect long-term climate outcomes, so recovery efforts should promote a “green recovery.”",
    "Develop an ambitious medium-term climate plan for the UN Climate Change Conference next year; the EU is cited as setting ambitious targets in the Green Deal.",
    "Use public support wisely:",
    "Put the right price on carbon:",
    "Promote green finance:",
    "Promote a just transition:",
    "Coordinate internationally:",
    "The IMF is scaling up support to member countries with policy advice, financial resources, and a global platform for joint action.",
    "The Managing Director has placed climate change high on the IMF agenda once the immediate crisis has passed.",
    "Within Europe, the IMF is preparing an analytic paper on Climate Policies in the EU to inform discussions with member countries.",
    "IMF Special Series Note: Fiscal Policies to Respond to COVID-19: “Greening the Recovery,” April 20, 2020.",
    "October 2019 Fiscal Monitor (basis for $2.3 trillion estimate and policy proposals).",
    "Forthcoming IMF publication—April 2020 Global Financial Stability Report, Chapter 5: “Physical Risk and Equity Prices.”",
    "**Greening the Recovery**",
    "[Tao Zhang](https://www.imf.org/en/About/senior-officials/Bios/tao-zhang)",
    "[Speeches](https://www.imf.org/en/news/searchnews)",
    "[PRESS CENTER](http://presscenter.imf.org/)",
    "[https://www.imf.org/en/home](https://www.imf.org/en/home)"
  ],
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