A new UN Climate agreement will probably be signed by the end of this year with some incremental progress but even inveterate optimists like myself don’t believe it will be capable of ‘bridging the gap’ between the maximum that 196 governments can agree upon by consensus...

We draw six political economy lessons from the actual dynamics of climate negotiations and their connection to the new macroeconomic normal emerging in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis. A specific proposal follows.

The Bangladesh central bank has a long tradition of favouring socially sustainable financing behavior. It was thus natural to extend its mission to the question of climate change mitigation and adaptation investments, both internally and externally in the global financial system.

Four guide-posts for efficient low-carbon finance are proposed: remove subsidies for high-carbon technologies, improve the cost-effectiveness of low-carbon subsidies, encourage private sector innovation, and maintain transparent public policy tools that support cost-benefit accounting.

As the pace of action looks set to rumble on, countries should seek to make progress on resolving several key issues including the free-rider problem.

The aim of this webpage, co-hosted by France Stratégie and CEPII, is to provide a medium for experts and non-experts to discuss the merits and the limits of the various proposals and initiatives in the field of international finance. It is intended to become a forum where the debate on the financial system’s contribution to the energy transition can flourish.

Europe was disappointed in the GHG emissions reduction proposal by Japan in the context of the COP 21: -25.4% between 2005 and 2030. Japan could nonetheless help move forward the climate issue by its technologies and original experiences.

Crude oil price volatility is often viewed as reflecting uncertainty not only related to the oil market, but also to the global macroeconomic environment. However, the question arises as to whether uncertainty is not likely to be at play without generating high volatility on the oil market.

Commodity markets have recently been at the center of the world economic concerns: their increasing prices and high volatility frighten. A special issue of International Economics focuses on explaining the recent developments on commodity markets.

The slow progress of regional integration efforts in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region could be explained by the reluctance of resource-rich countries to deepen trade agreements which hurt them.