By Francis Ogwo
The International Monetary Fund’s focus on a green global economic recovery would help in job creation, climate resilience, reforestation, dealing with land degradation, improving infrastructure and renewable energy.
This was disclosed by the Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, in a recent interview on Bloomberg on Saturday.
In her words: “This means moving towards other renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power. This shift will help reduce carbon emissions, spread electrification, and create jobs.
“In Kenya, the government increased access to electricity from 40 to 70% of the population in large part through the use of small, off-grid, solar-powered energy plants.”
Speaking further, Georgevia said money was invested into many sectors of global economy at the peak of the harsh economies of the COVID-19, and with the rising recovery, the IMF would prioritize a definitive end to the health crisis everywhere to enable emerging economies trade with advanced economies and also move towards a green economic model, which is a job-rich model and can boost GDPs of nations.
“When we put the economy into a standstill, the right policy response was to support companies across the board. Central banks, financial authorities, and institutions like mine have poured resources so that there is a floor under the world economy. And at that stage of the emergency response to a very unusual crisis, it would be wrong to try to differentiate. You don’t have the time. And you would do more harm than good if you differentiate,” she added.
Georgevia further noted that “We are now at the point where we are seeing the signs of recovery. That is moving us to a different phase where our advice from the fund is threefold: One, prioritize a definitive end to the health crisis everywhere. Even if advanced economies and some emerging-market economies revitalize themselves, if their trading partners are in trouble, that drags the world down. Two, start now thinking about how to gradually move support towards what you want to see in the future. Are jobs being protected? Are jobs being created? Now why is a green recovery very attractive? Because the green recovery can be a job-rich recovery.”
In her view, the green recovery will create jobs in climate resilience, reforestation, dealing with land degradation, improving infrastructure to withstand climate shocks, building installations as a lot of renewable energy projects create jobs while creating income equality opportunities for the future, through investing “in people, investing in education, and investing in internet accessibility.”
“One thing that I’m eager for the fund to play a role in is this combination between social safety nets and social safety ropes—provide incentives for people, especially young people, women, those that are most affected in this crisis. And it is great for the economy, it is also great for social cohesion,” she said.
Governments of many countries have included “green” recovery measures in their crisis recovery packages through grants, loans and tax reliefs directed towards green transport, circular economy and clean energy research, development and deployment.
This also includes new funding and programmes to create jobs and stimulate economic activity through ecosystem restoration, control of invasive alien species and forest conservation.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 189 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.
