IMF chief proposes $100 billion annual fund to tackle climate change

Environment News Service: The head of the International Monetary Fund today proposed to create a multi-billion dollar Green Fund that would provide the financing that countries need to cope with climate change and move to a low-carbon growth model. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the funding needed could amount to $100 billion a year within a few years.

"We are going to provide some ideas built around a Green Fund devoted to finance the $100 billion a year, which is the figure which is commonly accepted that is needed for addressing the problem, based on a capitalization of this fund coming from central banks, backed by special drawing rights issued by the Fund, said Strauss-Kahn.

…During a panel discussion on the future of the world economy chaired by Martin Wolf of the "Financial Times," Strauss-Kahn said it is obvious that developing countries do not have the cash to finance the measures needed to tackle climate change, while developed countries are burdened with enormous debts from combating the global economic crisis.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn (Photos by Sebastian Derungs courtesy World Economic Forum)

Strauss-Kahn said alternative solutions are needed and announced that the IMF will release a paper in a few weeks setting out ideas on how the proposal can be financed. He said the world must adopt a low-carbon model for growth as it rebuilds from the global economic crisis. "I can't believe we don't have the solution to this huge problem," he told the audience in Davos….

IMF headquarters in Washington