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Political Science > Environmental Policy

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Cover Staff Climate Notes
Harnessing Renewables in Sub-Saharan Africa: Barriers, Reforms, and Economic Prospects
Kailhao Cai, Thibault Lemaire, Andrea Medici, Giovanni Melina, Gregor Schwerhoff, and Sneha D Thube
Sub-Saharan Africa needs to significantly accelerate its electricity generation. While hydropower is prominent in some countries, solar and wind power generation has lagged other world regions, even though sub-Saharan Africa has some of the most favorable conditions. A mix of domestic and external financing can increase both renewable electricity generation and GDP. In a scenario where about $25 bn in climate finance flows are allocated annually to renewable energy, renewable electricity production could be up to 24 percent higher than in a scenario excluding this financing, and annual GDP growth would be boosted by 0.8 percentage point on average over the next decade, accompanied by stronger labor demand in the electricity sector. Policies can help catalyze climate finance. An ambitious package of governance, business regulations, and external sector reforms is associated with a 20 percent increase in climate finance flows and a 7 percent increase in electricity generation over five years. In addition, implementing climate policies is linked to increases in green foreign direct investment announcements and green electricity production.
Keywords:
Sub-Saharan Africa; electricity generation; renewable energy; climate finance; economic development; market reforms; climate policies; IMF staff Climate note; harnessing renewable; part of the International Monetary Fund; IMF analysis; IMF staff Climate; Electricity; Climate policy; Africa; Global; East Africa
Cover Technical Assistance Reports
Cabo Verde: Technical Assistance Report-Climate Policy Diagnostic
International Monetary Fund. Fiscal Affairs Dept.
Cabo Verde faces development challenges from multiple structural factors, including insularity, territorial discontinuity, fragility of ecosystems, and scarcity of natural resources, namely water and arable land. Climate change implications are amplifying these challenges. As an island extension of the arid Sahel zone, Cabo Verde faces severe water shortage, which the country addresses more and more through energy intensive desalination, using electricity produced largely by thermal power plants, which depend entirely on imported fossil fuels. The resulting high energy prices directly impact the cost of water production. In conjunction with climate change induced aridity, the energy-water-climate nexus presents the core development challenge for the country.
Keywords:
climate change implication; cross government coordination; policy priority; climate change management coordination; authorities of Cabo Verde; government transfer; Climate change; Renewable energy; Electricity; Greenhouse gas emissions; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Cross-Border Impacts of Climate Policy Packages in North America
Jean-Marc Fournier, Tannous Kass-Hanna, Liam Masterson, Anne-Charlotte Paret, and Sneha D Thube
We quantify cross-border effects of the recent climate mitigation policies introduced in Canada and the U.S., using the global general equilibrium model IMF-ENV. Notably, with the substantial emission reductions from Canada’s carbon tax-led mitigation policies and the U.S.’ Inflation Reduction Act, these two countries would bridge two-thirds of the gap toward their Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) goals. While the broadly divergent policies are believed to elicit competitiveness concerns, we find the aggregate cross-border effects within North America to be very limited and restricted to the energy intensive and trade exposed industries. Potential carbon leakages are also found to be negligible. A more meaningful difference triggered by policy heterogeneity is rather domestic, especially with U.S. subsidies increasing energy output while the Canada model with a carbon tax would marginally decrease it. This analysis is complemented by a stylized model illustrating how such divergence can affect the terms of trade, but also how these effects can be countered by exchange rate flexibility, border adjustments or domestic taxation.
Keywords:
Climate Policy; Climate Change Policy; Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs); Mitigation; Climate subsidies; Carbon Tax; Carbon pricing; Spillovers; North America; Global; IMF-ENV model; Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models; Competitiveness; Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG); Revenue Recycling; Inflation Reduction Act (IRA); Power; Electricity; climate policy package; mitigation policy; green subsidy; Canada's Carbon pricing policy; divergent policy
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Paraguay: Second Review Under the Policy Coordination Instrument, Request for an Extension of the Policy Coordination Instrument, Modification of Targets, Inflation Band Consultation, and Request of Arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Paraguay
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
This paper presents Paraguay’s Second Review under the Policy Coordination Instrument, Request for an Extension of the Policy Coordination Instrument, Modification of Targets, Inflation Band Consultation, and Request of Arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). The government is committed to continued prudent macroeconomic policies and the implementation of structural reforms, including a series of adaptation and mitigation measures and to preserve and expand its green energy matrix. Barring global and weather-related external shocks, Paraguay’s growth prospects are bright. It remains important for Paraguay to rebuild fiscal buffers, including through implementation of long-standing structural reforms. The re-establishment of the fiscal deficit rule by 2026 is rightfully the government’s key priority. The authorities are committed to implementing an ambitious set of climate-related reforms consistent with maximum access under the RSF. The commitment to implement an ambitious matrix of climate-related reforms, closely coordinated with development partners, will help enhance the country’s image as a ‘green’ investment destination.
Keywords:
inflation expectation; inflation-targeting regime; sound capacity; BCP credit survey; RSF request; Climate change; Electricity; Global; South America
Cover Staff Climate Notes
How to Cut Methane Emissions
Ian W.H. Parry, Mr. Simon Black, Danielle N Minnett, Mr. Victor Mylonas, and Nate Vernon
Limiting global warming to 1.5 to 2°C above preindustrial levels requires rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. This includes methane, which has an outsized impact on temperatures. To date, 125 countries have pledged to cut global methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. This Note provides background on methane emission sources, presents practical fiscal policy options to cut emissions, and assesses impacts. Putting a price on methane, ideally through a fee, would reduce emissions efficiently, and can be administratively straightforward for extractives industries and, in some cases, agriculture. Policies could also include revenue-neutral ‘feebates’ that use fees on dirtier polluters to subsidize cleaner producers. A $70 methane fee among large economies would align 2030 emissions with 2oC. Most cuts would be in extractives and abatement costs would be equivalent to just 0.1 percent of GDP. Costs are larger in certain developing countries, implying climate finance could be a key element of a global agreement on a minimum methane price.
Keywords:
Climate change mitigation; methane emissions; Global Methane Pledge; carbon pricing; methane tax; extractives; agriculture; design issues; border methane adjustment; international price floor; IMF staff Climate note; methane emission; IMF staff Climate Note 2022/008; IMF analysis; Greenhouse gas emissions; Natural gas sector; Agricultural sector; Agricultural commodities; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Creative Destruction During Crises - An Opportunity for a Cleaner Energy Mix
Mr. Pragyan Deb, Davide Furceri, Mr. Jonathan David Ostry, and Nour Tawk
Lockdowns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have reduced overall energy demand but electricity generation from renewable sources has been resilient. While this partly reflects the trend increase in renewables, the empirical analysis presented in this paper highlights that recessions result in a permanent, albeit small, increase in energy efficiency and in the share of renewables in total electricity. These effects are stronger in the case of advanced economies and when complemented with environment and energy policies—both market-based measures such as taxes on pollutants, trading schemes and feed-in-tariffs, as well as non-market measures such as emission and fuel standards and R&D investment and subsidies—to incentivize and hasten the transition towards renewable sources of energy.
Keywords:
Covid-19 lockdowns; recession; energy use; energy mix; renewables.; environmental protection stringency; energy demand; electricity generation; impact of recession; recession result; Renewable energy; Economic recession; Environmental policy; Electricity; Non-renewable resources; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Impact of Environmental Policy on Innovation in Clean Technologies
Johannes Eugster
This paper studies the effect of climate change mitigating policies on innovation in clean energy technologies. Results suggest that the tightening of environmental policies since the early 1990s have made a statistically and economically significant contribution to the increase in clean innovation. These effects generally materialized quickly, within 2 to 3 years of the policy change, and were driven by individually significant marginal effects of both market-based policies – such as feed-in tariffs and trading schemes – as well as non-market policies, such as R&D subsidies or emission limits. Looking at electricity innovation in particular, the paper finds that the estimated effect on total innovation is positive on net, meaning that increased innovation in clean and grey technologies is not offset by a decrease in innovation in dirty technologies. From a policy point of view, the paper’s results call for strong policy efforts to decisively shift innovation towards clean technologies.
Keywords:
Climate change mitigation; innovation; environmental policies; policy point of view; effect of climate change; climate change mitigation; policy effort; policy tool; Environmental policy; Electricity; Climate policy; Renewable energy; Global