Friday, 21 April 2017 20:01
Lauren Rigby Spring 2017 Fellow
The International Monetary Fund assists states when they are enduring and economic crisis. Their mandate states that they should not get involved in the politics of a country, only their finances. However, the recommendation made by the IMF in an aim to deal with a country’s balance of payments issues often come with highly political consequences. Whether the IMF aims for it or not, they are directly influencing the political and social future of often fragile countries. Recommendations are made in an attempt to raise a country’s GDP either through the lowering of expenditures, or the increase in revenue. A decrease of expenditures usually comes from lowering the funding given to services that are deemed as "non-essential". Social, educational, and environmental services are all at risk of being affected to spending cuts. I find this particularly concerning for services that provide environmental protection. I believe that environment protection and climate change are some of the most crucial issues facing our world today, and if not dealt with properly now , future generations will feel the direct effects of our lack of action. Environmental protection is now seen as a global initiative. However, I question what steps are in place, if any, to ensure that policy recommendations being made by the IMF do not prevent environmental protection from being a national commitment? We cannot afford for whatever funding, care, and importance given to the environment to be stripped away by the IMF. Perhaps the IMF can take a stance on recommending policies that increase environmental accountability by corporations, while also increasing revenue. Carbon taxes are an excellent example of a merging of these goals into a policy that can be effectively implemented. Carbon taxes can bring much needed revenue to a struggling economy while also directing responsibility of environmental degradation to the actors who negatively affect the environment the most. Even though the IMF does not want to take a political stance their recommendations have large impacts on the issues a country will have the capacity to address and the ones that will ultimately be put on the back burner. Environmental protection is an issue that requires global coordination to be solved and hopefully the IMF understands the power and capability it has to make a positive difference, instead of a negative one.