Recent Posts
Energy Trends and Outlook Through 2023: Surviving the Energy Crisis While Building a Greener Future
February 13, 2023The volatility in energy markets since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019/2020 has continued, with unprecedented uncertainty about global energy supply developing over the course of 2022 in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, against a backdrop of weakening macroeconomic conditions and high inflation. While some perceived this as a potential setback for the energy transition, others saw it as an opportunity to move away from fossil fuels and accelerate the development of clean technologies. This Policy Brief explores five recent trends that are likely to shape the transformation of [...]
Promoting Climate-Resilient and Green Development in Africa
February 7, 2023Sub-Saharan Africa has contributed little to global greenhouse gas emissions, and yet it is the world’s most vulnerable region to climate change. Rising temperatures and sea levels, as well as rainfall anomalies, are increasing the frequency and intensity of natural disasters. Heavy dependence on rain-fed agriculture and limited ability to adapt to weather-related shocks means that the livelihoods of millions are threatened by climate-induced disasters. COP27, often dubbed as “the Africa” COP, has recently ended. World leaders gathered in Sharm El-Sheikh to discuss how to mobilize collective efforts for ambitious [...]
Climate Finance: How to move from the Trillions to the People?
January 25, 2023Climate finance has emerged as a major concern not just for African countries, but for the developing world at large. Global warming is estimated to generate a median loss of 1.5 percent of annual GDP in developing countries and in sub-Saharan Africa (IPCC, 2022). At the same time, there is a rising occurrence of catastrophic events – droughts, floods, pandemics – that lead to the loss of years of development at once. It is poor people, women, and children that are the least able to protect themselves and bear the [...]
Sailing On a Storming Sea: Policy Challenges For Developing Countries 2022-2025
December 29, 2022The current bleak outlook for the world economy, with a likely recession in major economies, high inflation, rising interest rates, and slow productivity growth, will adversely emerging market and developing countries (EMDE) over the next few years. Unfortunately, these countries emerged from COVID-19 with less fiscal space and rising debt service payments. Policies to insulate the domestic economy from these external shocks will present policymakers with difficult choices among exchange rate stability, capital mobility, and monetary independence: the so-called monetary trilemma. The impact of these external shocks on the domestic [...]