26 February 2010: Speaking at the Annual Meeting of the Bretton Woods Committee, held in Washington DC, US, on 26 February 2010, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), proposed to expand the IMF’s role as a provider of insurance for low-income countries against global volatility and the effects of climate change.

Strauss-Kahn said that, although climate change does not fall within the IMF’s core “mandate,” the serious macroeconomic and financing consequences of climate change fit within the Fund’s responsibility to support long-term global stability. He called for creating creative solutions “to what is perhaps the most critical issue facing the planet in the 21st century.” [The Statement]