Now Is The Time For A Carbon Tax, IMF Chief Says

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Now Is The Time For A Carbon Tax, IMF Chief Says

October 31st, 2015

Awake Goy

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called for a carbon tax late Wednesday at the IMF/World Bank annual meeting in Lima, Peru. Meanwhile, reports show that more and more places are adopting carbon taxes, in largely successful efforts to use market forces to increase clean energy development.

Climate change is now a “macro-critical” issue, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said. The wording there is important, because the IMF defines macro-critical issues as “either critical to the achievement of macroeconomic program goals or necessary for the implementation of specific provisions under the IMF’s Articles of Agreement,” the Sierra Club noted Thursday.

“The IMF has correctly recognized, after taking a sober look at major threats to the long term stability of all countries, that a changing climate poses threats to the stability and vitality of the world’s economies,” Steve Herz, a senior attorney with Sierra Club’s International Climate Program, said in a statement emailed to ThinkProgress.

Lagarde: if we chicken out of climate change we will all turn to chicken: we will be fried, grilled and roasted. #Voices4Climate

— IMF (@IMFNews) October 7, 2015

Now Is The Time For A Carbon Tax, IMF Chief Says

October 31st, 2015

Awake Goy

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called for a carbon tax late Wednesday at the IMF/World Bank annual meeting in Lima, Peru. Meanwhile, reports show that more and more places are adopting carbon taxes, in largely successful efforts to use market forces to increase clean energy development.

Climate change is now a “macro-critical” issue, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said. The wording there is important, because the IMF defines macro-critical issues as “either critical to the achievement of macroeconomic program goals or necessary for the implementation of specific provisions under the IMF’s Articles of Agreement,” the Sierra Club noted Thursday.

“The IMF has correctly recognized, after taking a sober look at major threats to the long term stability of all countries, that a changing climate poses threats to the stability and vitality of the world’s economies,” Steve Herz, a senior attorney with Sierra Club’s International Climate Program, said in a statement emailed to ThinkProgress.

Lagarde: if we chicken out of climate change we will all turn to chicken: we will be fried, grilled and roasted. #Voices4Climate

— IMF (@IMFNews) October 7, 2015