International spillovers and illicit activities around economic/climate policies 

Please consider the following questions for this topic:

a. Climate spillovers: How do countries’ climate-related economic and financial policies affect other countries’ macroeconomic stability or international financial markets? How can we develop metrics to determine which economic and financial policies generate the largest spillovers? For example, looking at production or consumption-based GHG emissions is only one side of the equation. Some smaller emitters house the Earth’s most biodiverse areas and most important carbon sinks (e.g., Brazil). Their economic and financial policies may be just as relevant for climate change – and its impact on macroeconomic stability – as polluters’ policies.

b. How can we avoid that environmental crimes (such as illegal logging, illegal mining, illegal fishing, illegal hazardous waste disposal, illegal wildlife trade) and the proceeds they generate undermine the stability of a country’s financial system or broader economy?

Resources

UN Environment Program, 2016 The Rise of Environmental Crimes

FATF, 2020 Report on Money Laundering and Illegal Wildlife Trade

GIABA, 2019 Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Linked to the Extractive Industry/Mining Sector in West Africa

ESAAMLG, 2016 Typologies Report on Wildlife Crimes

APG and UNODC, 2017 Enhancing the Detection, Investigation and Disruption of Illicit Financial Flows from Wildlife Crime

World Bank, 2019 Report on Illegal Logging, Illegal Fishing and Wildlife Trade 

Interpol, 2020 Strategy Analysis Report on Emerging Trends in the Global Plastic Waste Market