PODCAST: How Green Fiscal Policies Can Help Save the Planet

More than 190 countries submitted national climate plans as part of the international Paris Agreement on climate change. Now they’re grappling with the question: How do we best put them into action?

A new International Monetary Fund (IMF) paper explores fiscal policies as a way of implementing climate change strategies. WRI President and CEO Dr. Andrew Steer recently discussed this topic on the IMF podcast. The top takeaway: Rapidly decreasing global greenhouse gas emissions can actually be good for the economy.

“Done smartly, there will be an economic gain of $26 trillion in GDP between now and 2030, and there would be another 67 million jobs created,” Steer said.

Better fiscal policies like carbon prices can help ensure that the world makes this transition at the speed and scale necessary, while reaping economic benefits.

“The biggest market failure are the uncounted negative costs of climate change that no one has to pay for until it’s too late,” Steer said. “Taxation, how you spend the revenue from that taxation, how you manage risk into the future, these are all very, very important and very relevant to fiscal policy.”

Listen to the podcast for more discussion on the Paris Agreement, green fiscal policy, and what we can learn from the 70 countries and regions that are already taxing carbon.