IMF calls for $168tr investments to address climate change

By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called for massive investments ranging from $84 trillion to about $168 trillion over the next 28 years to address climate change.
IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva and Tobias Adrian, Head of the IMF Capital Markets Departments, in a press release said governments would be required to play more catalytic role in propelling private sector funding to deal with climate change.
In underscoring the magnitude and urgency of the climate change problem, the IMF chiefs said the current level at about $630 billion devoted to climate change is “just a fraction of what’s really needed, adding that very little of that fund goes to developing countries.
“That’s why we need a major shift to harness public and, especially, private financing. With $210 trillion in financial assets across firms, or roughly twice the gross domestic product of the entire world, the challenge for policymakers and investors is how to direct a big share of these holdings to climate mitigation and adaptation projects,” the IMF chiefs said.
They also said that this is the focus of a new IMF Staff Climate Note on mobilising private climate financing in emerging market and developing economies.