I wonder why did Volkswagen, and other European capitalists, cheer the Commission's omnibus deregulation push and now they want Chinese style-planning?
China can plan because its state can discipline capital into strategic priorities. It has credit policy. It has industrial policy.
Instead of bowing to US pressure, the @IMFNews Surveillance review should:
- Integrate climate into core policy advice
- Commit to 'do no harm' principle through use of mandatory distributional and climate impact assessments
- Follow Paris Agreement principles of equity and CBDR 9/9
The findings of our report echo the findings of the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office:
The Fund lacked a strategic long-term anchor and clarity in its Climate Strategy in 2021. It is not treating climate as a serious threat to its own mandate. 8/9
FOSSILS VS. RENEWABLES:
For at least 7 of the 60 countries analysed, the Fund stated the 'positive impact' of fossil fuels on macroeconomic stability.
Renewables were largely covered, but how are countries supposed to accelerate the energy transition without fiscal space? 7/9
MARKET-BASED VS. INDUSTRIAL POLICY:
While #IMF encourages Australia to lead green industrial policy on critical minerals, it advises Pakistan to increase gas and electricity tariffs, restructure energy sectors and rely on #CarbonPricing to fulfil austerity targets. 6/9
FISCAL: The #IMF is advising countries to further reduce public budgets, even at the expense of climate policy.
In only 3 out of 60 countries the Fund assessed public finance needs in its #debt sustainability analysis. 5/9
But was the IMF ready to move away from its focus on short-term stability to take climate seriously?
Our report tries to address this question in order to provide recommendations for the ongoing Surveillance review.
⚠️And we found @IMFNews is locking in a dual track approach to climate policy. 4/9
The Fund recognised that climate change poses risks to macroeconomic stability.
The 2021 Climate Strategy defined the extent to which climate would be covered under surveillance activities, through which the Fund assesses the alignment of country policies with its mandate. 3/9
The #IMF agreed to work more on inequality, climate and gender in its 2021 Comprehensive Surveillance Review.
The recognition of the trade offs between short- and long-term macroeconomic stability seemed to address longstanding criticisms by civil society. 2/9
The US Treasury has put the ongoing IMF Surveillance review at the top of the agenda as they want to stop the Fund’s work on climate. But what’s the IMF’s track record since the 2021 Climate Strategy?
Read more in our new @re-course.org report: bit.ly/IMFsurveillance
🧵1/9
This characterization of the IMF’s climate work as ‘woke’ and ‘far left’ is just plain wrong
The IMF’s fragmented approach to climate is embedded in its wider austerity-based advice - firmly rooted in Reaganomics. This has persistently failed to deliver economic stability
(Screenshot via NY Post)
The #IMF 'core' mandate of macroeconomic stability cannot ignore #climate #gender #inequality
“The IMF must ensure its fiscal, financial, monetary and exchange rate policy advice allows countries to fulfil targets under the Paris Agreement,” argues @federicosibaja.bsky.social @re-course.org
🚨 Today, Deutsche Bank, Santander, ING, and Natixis (Groupe BPCE) renew their support for Venture Global LNG, the largest liquefied natural gas #LNG developer, by helping its subsidiary, Venture Global Plaquemines, in issuing two bonds worth a total of US$4 billion.
Why is this support problematic?
🚨ALERT: TotalEnergies raises €3 billion through bonds thanks to the support of Société Générale, Deutsche Bank, BBVA, JP Morgan, MUFG, RBC and Wells Fargo.
in the second Dispatch from Seville, Iolanda Fresnillo from Eurodad writes about the systematic efforts of Global North countries -1 (US) to preserve an injust debt architecture that benefits private investors
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/who...
#FfD4 will set the agenda for how the global economic system will serve #development in the coming years.
European governments should show the political will that is needed for #EconomicJustice. The time is now! ⏰
Read our OpEd (@politico.eu): www.politico.eu/sponsored-co...
🚨Global economic relations have long been defined by imbalances and unequal power, not by self-correcting market forces, NEW STUDY finds.
@thomaspiketty.bsky.social & @gatonievas.bsky.social call for structural reforms to the international monetary and exchange system.
wid.world/news-article...
3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt interest than on health or education
We welcome the @europarl.europa.eu #Development Committee's support for a #UNDebtConvention in today's historical #FfD4 vote.
The UN is the only 🌍 institution with equal representation & can guarantee that creditors' interests aren't prioritised over the needs of millions of people!
A 🧵
New Report: €100 Billion in Austerity Cuts Across Europe
🔎 Examples:
🇫🇷 France – €20B: public hiring freeze, cuts to healthcare
🇧🇪 Belgium – €12.3B: pensions & health
🇮🇹 Italy – €20B: social protection
🇪🇸 Spain – €6.5B: education & healthcare
🇷🇴 Romania – €6B: wage caps, tax hikes
Despite the Asian Development Bank's commitment global climate goals, its technical assistance is still supporting #FossilGas — a highly polluting fossil fuel that is risky for economies, communities and the environment.
📽️ Rajneesh Bhuee #ADBAnnualMeeting @adb.org
📃Read the briefing bit.ly/ADB-TA25
Scott Bessent on the IMF: “mission creep... Now it devotes disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender, and social issues.”
“The IMF must be a brutal truth-teller, and not just to some members.” In other words, criticise China more. home.treasury.gov/news/press-r...
25 years ago John Williamson coined term Washington Consensus to capture US policy preferences for rest of the world, implemented/enforced via US domination of IMF/World Bank.
today, Scott Bessent complained about IMF/WB 'mission creep' against US interests
home.treasury.gov/news/press-r...
Debt-for-nature swaps have failed to deliver real benefits for the Global South - so why expect them to fund the clean energy transition?
We break down why we need grants + debt cancellation, not more debt swaps
Read in @devex.com w/ Power Shift Africa -
Graph showing that Half of World Bank energy projects (2022-24) have high or substantial environmental and social risk ratings
Half of World Bank energy projects approved over the last 3 years were deemed highly risky for people and the environment.
In 2024 this was up to 60%!
This means that it's not supporting the countries and communities who need it most, but rather putting them at risk of harm.
🚨New in #ObserverSpring25
IMF's 2025 Conditionality Review risks repeating past failures: austerity, debt traps & unrealistic recovery targets fuel inequality while prioritising repayment to creditors. #IMF #DebtCrisis #Austerity @re-course.org @eurodadnews.bsky.social
tinyurl.com/IMFCondition...
The IMF going big in lending to Argentina on the basis of apparent early success by a charismatic reforming president has fortunately never gone wrong in the past.
Capacity to repay. Staff assesses that Argentina’s capacity to repay the Fund remains subject to exceptional risks, hinging critically on early policy actions and sustained implementation of the stabilization plan to deliver reserve accumulation goals and secure the resumption of market access by the time repurchases to the Fund come due (see Table 12). The room to maneuver remains limited, especially in the context of low reserve buffers, high FX debt service obligations, a history of capital flow volatility, and a more shock-prone external environment. The Fund’s exposure would peak at SDR 43.1 billion in 2026 (the largest exposure in the history of the Fund), exceed 100 percent of gross international reserves until end-2027, and remain above 1,000 percent of quota until end-2029. Total Fund obligations would peak at over SDR 8.9 billion in 2030, leading to somewhat higher overall gross external financing needs, which would average about 9 percent of GDP (excluding intra-public sector debt service) in the forecast period. Peak obligations to the Fund would constitute about 9 percent of projected exports and 15 percent of projected central bank reserves and would persist at high levels for several years after the end of the program period.
It got lost in the market chaos last week but the IMF has more or less bet the house on Argentina with its latest $20bn bailout ($12bn upfront) per this bit of the staff paper. Biggest exposure in fund history on the way, on top of the legacy of the 2022 bailout. www.imf.org/en/Publicati...
This paper is WILD:
“Nestlé’s entry into LMIC formula markets caused about 212,000 infant deaths per year among mothers without clean water access… and has led to approximately 10.9 million excess infant deaths between 1960 and 2015.” www.nber.org/system/files...
In advice to 11 countries with IMF loans, @imfnews.bsky.social endorsed fossil fuel extraction “to bolster fiscal and debt positions as well as foreign reserves through exports.”
Is this the climate action it boasts about?
More in our report 🔖http://bit.ly/IMFclimate
@federicosibaja.bsky.social
