Qatar Economic Outlook Issue Number 13

Part 1: Economic Outlook 2021 - 2023 
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natural ventilation and lighting instead of 
today’s reliance on electric-powered cooling, 
and finally (3) encouraging the use of public 
transportation (mass transit) replacing 
today’s reliance on private vehicles. 
International Consensus Towards 
Rational Climate Policy
In view of the economic and political 
dimensions that have thwarted the 
implementation of UN agreements related to 
reducing GHG emissions since the Rio de 
Janeiro climate conference in 1992 that 
established the UNFCCC, the now-
irrefutable evidence of global heating that 
many countries have endured during the past 
five years, such as melting glaciers, wildfires, 
withering long-term droughts, and increasing 
flood magnitudes and frequency, has finally 
prompted developed countries to move 
towards carbon neutrality by adopting new 
agreements such as the European Green 
Deal, which includes regulations to move 
away from fossil fuels, and to move towards 
carbon pricing with the goal of ensuring that 
the EU countries achieve net-zero GHG 
emissions by 2050.
Russia and China have announced that they 
are adopting programs that will lead to 
carbon neutrality by 2050 and 2060, 
respectively. The United States of America 
has made strides towards achieving its 
environmental goals by starting to reduce 
emissions by halting the laying of new fossil 
fuel pipelines and even stopping drilling 
plans, working to expand the protected area 
of federal land, returning to the Paris climate 
agreement and actively participating in the 
Glasgow conference. It renewed its 
commitment to partnership with other 
countries, specifically with China, in finding 
measures in how to find solutions to reduce 
emissions, and even obligating countries to 
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https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/SPROLLs/Article-iv-staff-reports
comply with the agreements, including 
imposing financial penalties on persons and 
legal entities who commit any of the grave 
violations of the agreements.
At the level of international organizations 
and institutions, the United Nations 
Development Program has modified the 
methodology for calculating the human 
development index (HDI). The International 
Monetary Fund has also adopted four 
measures to include climate issues in all its 
activities, including the process of preparing 
Article IV
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: (1) From now on, Article IV 
consultations will be including climate 
assessment and assistance for member 
states on how to adapt to climate change 
and address its causes, including 
conducting studies on countries to take into 
account carbon pricing in assessments for 
countries with large emissions, (2) Including 
climate related financial stability risks in 
financial sector surveillance – through 
standardized disclosure of these risks, 
enhanced stress tests and assessments of 
supervisory frameworks, (3) Scaling up 
climate in capacity development to help 
equip finance ministries and central banks 
with the skills needed to assess the impact 
of climate change on the economies of 
countries, and (4) Mainstreaming of climate 
indicators in macroeconomic data. To 
concretize its aims, the IMF launched
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, a 
"Climate Change Dashboard" in mid-2021. 
IMF also issued many reports
"
studies and 
notes on how to address climate change 
and adapt to it economically and 
administratively. 
It is worth to note that many other 
development banks around the world have 
already begun to favor financing green 
investments over considering reducing 
investments in financing fossil fuel projects. 
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https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/climate-change

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