In the 17th Episode of the CEPR/EAERE Webinar Series, on Monday 28 October 2024, from 4PM (CET), 11AM (EDT), and 3PM (GMT), Patrick Bolton (Imperial College London and CEPR) and Alissa M. Kleinnijenhuis (Cornell University, Imperial College London and CEPR) will present their paper “The Economic Case for Climate Finance at Scale”. The paper lays out the first economic case for scaling up climate finance from advanced countries to support EMDE decarbonization, particularly focusing on coal, the most polluting fossil fuel. With COP29 approaching and its agenda centered on setting a New Quantified Goal of Climate Finance (aiming to increase the $100 billion-a-year climate finance pledge to over $1 trillion a year), the paper’s findings are especially relevant. It empirically shows that large-scale climate finance is not only equitable but also economically beneficial for advanced economies.

The discussants, Geoffrey Heal (Columbia University and CEPR) and Lasse Heje Pedersen (Copenhagen Business School and CEPR), will provide complementary perspectives on the paper. Heal’s recent work on Blended Finance aligns with the presented paper’s focus on system-wide blended finance, while Pedersen’s research on Green Finance vs. Carbon Taxation, as explored in his CEPR VoxTalks Climate Finance podcast, finds that financial markets alone cannot achieve the necessary SCC. Pedersen’s paper is fundamental as it shows that green finance without government intervention cannot replicate a reasonable SCC, so if financial markets are to make a difference at the magnitude required to solve the climate crisis, system-wide public-private climate finance is likely important, which brings us back to The Economic Case for Climate Finance at Scale.

Click here to register.

For more information, check the invitation here.