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What is "Just Transition"?

Green Fiscal Reform for a Just Energy Transition in Latin America

This paper identifies four enabling factors for successful implementations of green fiscal reforms in Central and South America, examining why recent reform efforts have either succeeded or failed.

Detail

The authors of this paper identify and discuss important factors for successful implementations of green fiscal reforms in Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Belize, Venezuela, and Ecuador. When taken into consideration, these factors can help increase the technical and political feasibility of green fiscal reforms.

The authors draw on academic literature and expert knowledge to provide insights into the possibilities for—and limitations of—green fiscal reforms. Based on their analysis, they identify key factors for the successful introduction of green fiscal reforms, emphasizing the importance of favorable political conditions, comprehensive reform planning, and the gradual sequencing of reforms. They also emphasize the need to address distributional impacts on low-income households through social protection schemes based on stakeholder consultations with all relevant social groups. Their inclusion in the decisionmaking process should alleviate concerns about disproportionate adverse impacts on any single group.

The authors conclude by highlighting the international community’s important role in supporting green fiscal reforms through knowledge sharing and financing the macro-economic costs of reforms (such as by tying results-based payments to the introduction of a price on emissions or the de-risking of investments in clean energy and energy efficiency).

IDFC Green Finance Mapping Report 2019

This report evaluates the progress of the International Development Finance Club in mobilizing green financing to meet climate and development goals.

Detail

During the United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019, the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) committed to mobilizing more than $1 trillion to further the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals between 2019 and 2025, including enabling and leveraging private finance for these ends. This annual report analyzes green finance commitments made in 2018 based on survey data submitted by 17 of the IDFC members to evaluate their progress toward these goals.

This report divides green finance into two major categories: climate finance and other environmental objectives. The former is composed of funding for green energy and climate change mitigation and/or adaptation. The latter is composed of funding for other environmental objectives, namely improving waste and water management, protecting biodiversity, and controlling industrial pollution. The report also analyzes green finance flows from their original sources and provides statistics by IDFC member, region of destination, financial instrument, sector of use, and sub-sectoral technologies.

The results indicate a decrease in overall green finance from record levels in 2017, specifically in mitigation and other non–climate-related environmental projects. Consistent with previous years, climate finance was dominated by funding for green energy and greenhouse gas mitigation. However, adaptation finance continues to grow in absolute and relative terms. The results of the survey indicate national and regional development banks may be at a critical juncture, requiring support from governments and regulators to increase their financial commitments to climate and development goals.