IMF launches climate change indicators dashboard

By Kristalina Georgieva

Washington, DC. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today launched a new Climate Change Indicators Dashboard—an international statistical initiative to address the growing need for data in macroeconomic and financial policy analysis to facilitate climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The Dashboard is a single platform that brings together experimental climate change indicators that allows comparison across countries. The indicators have been developed in cooperation with international organizations and other agencies including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Bank Group (WBG), the United Nations (UN), the European Commission, the European Statistical Office (Eurostat), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The indicators presented are the result of estimates from IMF staff and other publicly available data sources.

The selection and development of the experimental indicators are driven by the IMF’s need for member countries surveillance, monitoring, policy making, and research. The Dashboard covers greenhouse gas emissions from economic activity, trade in environmental goods, green finance, government policies, and physical and transition risks.

“To develop the right measures to tackle climate change, governments need robust and comparable data. The new IMF Dashboard will help fill data gaps, so policymakers can undertake the macroeconomic and financial analysis that underpins effective policies,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.

The indicators are grouped into 4 categories: Economic Activity and Climate; Cross-Border; Financial, Physical and Transition Risks; and Government Policy indicators. The four categories broadly reflect four dimensions: production, consumption and final demand, financing, and government policies. Additional indicators, country coverage and granularity are planned to be added over time.