## Remarks by the Managing Director at COP27's Finance Day Opening Ceremony

_IMF News, November 9, 2022_

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## Bibliographic details
- Published: November 9, 2022

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### Current global context and urgency
- "We have widespread hunger. We see poverty going up. Energy prices are soaring. And most significantly, we are living through geopolitical fragmentation."
- 2021 context: "we finished the year with 6.1 percent global GDP growth."
- Consequence: "At a time when we need each other the most—particularly to address the climate crisis—it is harder to work together."

### Emissions gap and required reductions
- Common claim: "we will cut emissions between now and 2030 by 11 percent."
- IMF research finding: to keep the Paris Agreement dream alive, emissions need to be cut "somewhere between 25 and 50 percent."
- Conclusion: "So, we are falling short."

### Cost estimates for required investments
- Estimated investment cost: "between half and one percent of 2030 GDP to make the substantial investments that are required."
- Framing: "That percentage of 2030 GDP global GDP is a lot – but it is not unaffordable. The alternative is we put humanity at risk."

### Carbon pricing and incentives
- Current average global price of carbon: "around $5 a ton."
- Target price to change investment and consumer behavior: "at least $75 a ton by 2030."
- Coverage: "we now have around 25 percent of emissions covered by a carbon price."
- Policy rationale: "behavior doesn't change with saying please and having discussions—it changes with incentives" and "The best incentive we have for shifting to low emissions activities is to price carbon."

### Public-private collaboration and scaling finance
- Imperative: "public money must work with private money, to make it possible for organizations ... to invest."
- Role of civil society: "it means civil society must be a partner to help us do the right thing."
- Need to scale proven mechanisms: examples include "de-risking equity investments" and "compensating private sector for more short-term risk," but "we don't yet see it being done at scale."
- Specific barrier noted: "many investors see currency exchange as a serious obstacle" and while mechanisms exist to reduce this risk, "the task is to go to scale."

### IMF commitments, instruments, and accountability
- Commitments made at previous COP and status:
  - "We promised to integrate climate mitigation and climate adaptation in our policy discussion with countries – we have done it."
  - "We promised to create a long-term instrument that provides financing on concessional terms to low-income and vulnerable middle-income countries – we have done it."
- Financing instrument: "Soon, $40 billion will be available through the Resilience and Sustainability Trust."
- Implementation status: "Three countries have already crossed the finish line, and more are poised to cross soon."
- Accountability focus: "We are going to hold ourselves accountable on how our funding unlocks the potential for private finance, and how improving the investment planning environment translates into an increase in financing."
- Call to stakeholders: "I call on you to hold us accountable."

### Final call to decision makers
- Moral appeal and personal accountability: "When you when you feel pressure to not to what is right: please take this picture. Look at that. This is who we are accountable to. Do the right thing."

*International Monetary Fund*

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## References

- [https://www.imf.org/en/about/senior-officials/bios/kristalina-georgieva](https://www.imf.org/en/about/senior-officials/bios/kristalina-georgieva)
- [Arab Republic of Egypt and the IMF](http://www.imf.org/external/country/EGY/index.htm)
- [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)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2022/11/10/sp110922-md-cop27-opening_