If greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated, global temperatures will keep on rising at an unprecedented pace, with catastrophic implications for lives and livelihoods worldwide. Economic policy has a pivotal role to play in changing the ways we produce and consume in order to slow climate change. 

Countries in the JVI region will not be spared the economic costs of rising temperatures nor the difficult task of transforming their economies within the next thirty years to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, this transformation also holds opportunities for countries in the region, such as public investment-triggered growth, good quality green jobs, and better health from reduced air pollution. 

In this context, the JVI will offer two new courses on the economics of climate change. The first one, “Climate Change and Green Finance”, coordinated by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance and the Austrian National Bank, will take place June 14-18, 2021. The second one, “Climate Change Economics”, coordinated by the JVI faculty, will take place September 13-17, 2021. We encourage you to visit the course pages and apply. 

Leading up to these two courses, the JVI organizes a webinar series on selected issues in climate change economics. In discussion with experts from the IMF, the World Bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB), academia and central banks, we shed light on topics such as the political economy of climate change, carbon taxation, the role of financial sector oversight, and macroeconomic modelling – with a special focus on the JVI region. 

In this first webinar of the series, Andreas Breitenfellner and Igor Makarov provided a high-level introduction to the economics of climate change. Starting with the drivers of the man-made increase in average global temperatures, their presentations touched upon possible global warming scenarios and the risks they entail, and presented policy instruments to mitigate climate change and adapt to it. Last but not least, they discussed the state of climate policy affairs in the European Union and Russia.

Laurent Millischer, Economist, JVI