Following on from yesterday's damning revelations about the World Bank, another Bretton Woods institution is telling us that we can all relax. The IMF say that it is all going to be fine.

"Climate change is a potentially catastrophic global externality and one of the world's greatest collective action problems," the IMF said in releasing analytical chapters of its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook.

... staff estimates showed that mitigation policies introduced in 2013 and aiming to stabilize carbon-dioxide-equivalent concentrations at 550 parts per million by 2100 would entail only a 0.6 percent reduction in the net present value of world consumption by 2040.

"Even with this loss, world GNP (gross national product) would still be 2.3 times higher in 2040 than in 2007....

Over the long term, carbon pricing should help enhance economic growth, as it would create incentives for people and businesses to innovate and shift to using more efficient, low-emissions products and technologies." -- AFP

Well, they would say that wouldn't they. The International Monetary Fund is an institution owned by 187 member countries, yet the richest 15% of these countries have more than 60% of the voting power. This is the same institution that forces debtor countries into Structural Adjustment policies which directly leads to a reduction in the quality of life for many of the poorest people, that promotes violence against women, privatises essential services and generally turns development into fat rich men urinating on the poor. An increase in world GNP does nothing to help those at the bottom, battling to keep their lives together as the climate changes.

Take Egypt as an example.

Things are great in Egypt. Well, they are according to the standards of the IMF. In the autumn of 2007 they produced a report showing that the Egyptian economy continues to "impress" with a growth rates of 7.1% over 2006 - 2007 and a decline in unemployment to 9%. Furthermore Egypt has attracted $11bn in foreign investment in the past two years. The report argued that this success was down to a "dynamic private sector" and through the privatisation of several public enterprises - including banks and land. -- Guardian

As Sasha explains in his Guardian article, the conditions for those at the bottom of Egyptian society are getting worse not better, with more than 20% of the population living on less than $1 a day. Children are forced to leave school and work in heavy industrial jobs. Inflation is high and prices are increasing. Which is all fine if you can afford expensive consumer goods but of no use to the majority of the population who do not even have bank accounts. So much for 'impressing' the IMF.

Are we going to continue to let the World Bank, the IMF and WTO make these decisions -- which effectively mean benefits to the richest countries whilst ever tightening the noose around the neck of the poorest and those most susceptible to the effects of climate change?

Further Reading:

• The New Rulers of the World
• The Corporation
• The World Bank Sets its Sights on the Congo