A central objective of climate policy is the reduction of carbon emissions, either by promoting renewable energies and increasing energy efficiency across sectors, or by imposing restrictions on activities contributing to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The financial sector is expected to play a maj...

With the abandonment of its Zero COVID policy, the Chinese economy is expected to rebound and contribute substantively to global economic growth in the latter part of 2023. This is projected to add to world demand for oil, more than offsetting falling demand from advanced countries whose economies a...

The World Bank management’s Evolution Roadmap suggests the institution is reconsidering its ‘twin goals’ mission statement of eradicating extreme poverty (ending $2.15 poverty by 2030) and boosting shared prosperity (raising the incomes of the bottom 40 percent in each country). It is reassuring tha...

In Australia and elsewhere, more and more homes are becoming uninsurable due to hazards intensified by climate change. This is a slow-cooker issue which will render some areas de facto uninhabitable, leading to gradual movement out of at-risk regions. Here’s a look at how the world responded to thes...

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is addicted to fossil fuels but so too is the rest of the world. An energy transition will require a coordinated global shift in both the supply and the demand for fossil fuels and clean(er) energy, and multilateral institutions can play an important role.

The new year has hardly begun, but fears of a looming recession persist. Pandemic-era increases in health spending are unlikely to continue in low- and middle-income countries. Growing fiscal pressures­—such as high debt, increasing interest rates, and declining foreign aid and revenues—bode ominous...

At the Annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF last year, shareholders asked the World Bank to come up with a set of proposals to evolve a larger role in climate and other global public goods. The Bank’s first response came pretty quick: by mid December, only a couple of months after the request, ...

At COP27 last November, the parties agreed to provide “loss and damage” funding for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters. Governments also agreed to establish a “transitional committee” to make recommendations on how to operationalize both the new funding arrangements and the fund at C...