A World Climate Bank

Greenhouse-gas emissions cause external costs. They create inefficiency on a huge scale. Eliminating the inefficiency would lead to very great benefits, which could be distributed to the people of the world in a way that improves the life of each of them. No one need make a sacrifice. To achieve this result in real terms requires a transformation of the world’s economy. Resources must be shifted out of conventional investment and into reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. To make this possible in practice puts a responsibility on the world’s financial system. The transformation will have to be partly financed by very long-term loans. We need an international financial institution—a World Climate Bank—with enough stability and credibility to finance these large-scale changes.