IMF working on proposals for "green fund": IMF chief
Mon Feb 1, 2010 2:34pm GMT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund is working on proposals for a multi-billion dollar "green fund" to help countries tap funds to deal with the effects of climate change, the head of the institution said on Saturday.
IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, developing countries would need financial help to tackle the effects of climate change while rich nations have taken on higher debt in reaction to the global financial crisis.
Global negotiations on a new climate change pact have mostly looked to industrial powers to help finance efforts by developing countries to deal with climate change.
In remarks in Davos were published on the IMF Web site, Strauss-Kahn said the world needed to "think outside the box and come up with innovative ways to provide the money".
He said the IMF would begin discussions with central banks and finance ministers on whether such a fund was possible.
Strauss-Kahn said resources for the fund "which could climb to $100 billion a year" could be raised through an allocation to IMF member countries of IMF special drawing rights, or SDRS.
SDRs are an international reserve assets and the fund's unit of account. They are disbursed in proportion to each members' IMF quota, or subscription, and can be exchanged for hard currency such as U.S. dollars, yen, euros or pounds.
Last year, IMF member countries agreed to issue $250 billion worth of IMF special drawing rights, or SDRS, to boost global liquidity at a time countries' foreign exchange reserves were being depleted by the financial crisis
Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved.
Mon Feb 1, 2010 2:34pm GMT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund is working on proposals for a multi-billion dollar "green fund" to help countries tap funds to deal with the effects of climate change, the head of the institution said on Saturday.
IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, developing countries would need financial help to tackle the effects of climate change while rich nations have taken on higher debt in reaction to the global financial crisis.
Global negotiations on a new climate change pact have mostly looked to industrial powers to help finance efforts by developing countries to deal with climate change.
In remarks in Davos were published on the IMF Web site, Strauss-Kahn said the world needed to "think outside the box and come up with innovative ways to provide the money".
He said the IMF would begin discussions with central banks and finance ministers on whether such a fund was possible.
Strauss-Kahn said resources for the fund "which could climb to $100 billion a year" could be raised through an allocation to IMF member countries of IMF special drawing rights, or SDRS.
SDRs are an international reserve assets and the fund's unit of account. They are disbursed in proportion to each members' IMF quota, or subscription, and can be exchanged for hard currency such as U.S. dollars, yen, euros or pounds.
Last year, IMF member countries agreed to issue $250 billion worth of IMF special drawing rights, or SDRS, to boost global liquidity at a time countries' foreign exchange reserves were being depleted by the financial crisis
Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved.