This online event features as one of several this term which focusses on 'Political economy of European climate action', and is hosted by the European Political Economy Project (EUPEP) at the European Studies Centre.

Abstract: Many governments in Europe and elsewhere have issued “green” bonds tied to expenditures on climate change mitigation projects. The European Union has decided to issue green bonds to finance its coronavirus response program. But issuance of a green bond by an investment-grade government has no effect on its expenditures and may increase funding costs. An alternative, output-based approach is proposed: bonds whose payoff increases when a country’s greenhouse gas emission targets are exceeded would be more transparent, cheaper to administer, and more conducive to the long-term policy commitment that is essential to achieving sustainability.

Daniel C. Hardy was on the staff of the International Monetary Fund for most of his career to date. He contributed to macroeconomic and financial sector surveillance; Fund-supported programs; defining Fund policies; and technical assistance to help build financial sector frameworks and institutions in a wide range of industrialized, emerging market, and developing countries. Recently he led work on European financial integration and the banking union; debt management; and sovereign debt restructurings. He has undertaken research on such topics as cross-border policy coordination, credit market behavior, and stress testing. He has also worked at the Austrian Financial Market Authority and the German Bundesbank. He studied at the universities of Oxford and Princeton.

Fatos Koc is the Head of Public Debt Management Unit at the Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs of the OECD. She coordinates all activities of the OECD Working Party on Debt Management, which include publications and events related to public debt management and government securities markets. Her experience covers assessment of fiscal vulnerabilities and financial market risks in emerging and developed countries. Prior to joining the OECD, she was head of the market risk management department of the Turkish Treasury. In this capacity, she mainly supervised formulation of medium term benchmark borrowing strategies and debt sustainability analyses. While at the Treasury, as a special advisor to the IFIs including the IMF and the UNCTAD, she took part in several research projects and country missions related to various theoretical and practical aspects of public debt management. She has authored and co-authored several publications on sovereign debt and risk management.

Martin Ellison is Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Nuffield College. He gained his PhD in economics from the European University Institute in Florence, and was previously a consultant at the Bank of England and Professor at the University of Warwick. In recent years he has been a Visiting Professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He is currently a consultant at the European Central Bank, a member of the Finnish Economic Policy Council, and a Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).

This event will be chaired by Charles Enoch (St Antony's College, Oxford).

Registration and assistance details are available in the event link at top page.

Image courtesy of European Commission