Politics

IMF director says eliminating subsidies to fossil fuels would yield 7 trillion dollars

United Nations, Sept 20 (EFE).- The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, said Wednesday during a climate forum at the UN General Assembly that eliminating subsidies to fossil fuel companies would generate 7 trillion dollars that could be invested in accelerating the energy transition.

Georgieva added that this measure would achieve a 43% reduction in emissions of polluting gases into the atmosphere by 2030, a key step towards achieving the international goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

The Bulgarian economist noted that subsidies to fossil fuels have been growing in recent years and will reach $7 trillion by 2022.

The director arrived at this figure by adding explicit subsidies ($1.3 trillion) and implicit subsidies, meaning the costs of carbon emissions and air pollution associated with the use of fossil fuels are externalized.

During her speech, Georgieva reviewed the IMF’s special financing mechanisms to address the climate crisis, such as the Sustainability and Resilience Fund, through which programs have already been approved with ten countries to improve their capacity to adapt to the effects of climate change.

Her speech followed those of several leaders from the global South who called for reform of international financial institutions, such as the IMF and World Bank, to provide further flexibility to the least developed countries, which are burdened by debt and suffering the worst effects of a climate crisis to which they have not contributed.

The UN Climate Ambition Summit is part of the UN General Assembly High-Level Week events taking place in New York this week, where leaders from around the world are gathering to assess progress on the Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has already warned that the international community is far from achieving these goals, which include targets such as eradicating poverty or reducing polluting emissions and called for more ambitious action, especially from industrialized countries. EFE

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