Acceptance Speech by Kristalina Georgieva, IMF Managing Director, Venice, Italy President Mattarella, Governor Visco, Mayor Brugnaro; Professors Lippiello and La Malfa; Commissioner Gentiloni; all of you who have come here today: I am deeply grateful for your presence and for the honor of being the first recipient of the Ugo la Malfa Prize for International Cooperation from the Università Ca Foscari Venezia, the Enciclopedia Treccani, and the Fondazione Ugo La Malfa. I will cherish it and will work hard to serve our family of...

The Council has today adopted a regulation on establishing a framework of measures for strengthening Europe's net-zero technology manufacturing ecosystem, better known as the 'net-zero industry act'. This is the last step in the decision-making process. The regulation aims to boost the industrial deployment of net-zero technologies that are needed to achieve the EU's climate goals, using the strength of the single market to reinforce Europe’s position as a leader in industrial green technologies. "The net-zero industry act is one of the...

Developed countries provided and mobilised USD 115.9 billion in climate finance for developing countries in 2022, exceeding the annual 100 billion goal for the first time and reaching a level that had not been expected before 2025. According to new figures from the OECD, in 2022 climate finance was up by 30% from 2021, or by USD 26.3 billion. This is the biggest year-on-year increase to date and means that the 100 billion mark was reached a year earlier than...

Meeting the continent’s emission reduction targets could enhance energy security metrics by 8 percent by 2030—and that would be just the start Blog post by Geoffroy Dolphin, Romain Duval, Galen Sher, Hugo Rojas-Romagosa | Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered Europe’s worst energy crisis since the 1970s and put energy security back at the top of the policy agenda. Policymakers reacted swiftly by securing alternative natural gas supplies, improving energy efficiency, and expanding renewables. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions would, they said, not only mitigate climate...

When Russia invaded Ukraine, and turned its energy resources into an economic weapon against Europe, our reaction was rapid and robust. We adopted the REPowerEU Plan to end Europe's dependency on Russian fossil fuels. Two years later, the results of our collective efforts are clear to all. We have made a massive cut in Russian energy imports, squeezing the Kremlin's war economy and standing in solidarity with our Ukrainian friends. We have worked with reliable international partners to replace Russian...

Blog post by Omiros Kouvavas, Athanasios Tsiortas | Recent results from the ECB’s Consumer Expectations Survey (CES) show a substantial increase in the share of consumers who applied for credit. This may seem surprising as currently borrowers have to pay higher interest rates and banks are providing less credit than in previous years. What are the main drivers behind this dynamic? CES microdata suggests there have been significant shifts in the composition of consumer groups applying for credit. Higher-income consumers now...