@thomstubbs.bsky.social
Reader in Global Political Economy | Royal Holloway, University of London | International political economy, international public policy, global health, climate | https://www.tstubbs.net/
2026 could reshape accountability in public finance
🔎 Several international financial institutions are reviewing their accountability mechanisms & safeguard policies. Decisions made this year will shape access to remedy & standards for years to come.
New analysis 🔗 www.linkedin.com/pulse/2026-c...
Thread 👇 on a new article by @profmiskimmon.bsky.social and I, Strategic narrative: its origins and evolution, its connection to public diplomacy, and some future paths. Read here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
19.01.2026 15:01 — 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0That's kind of like what they do with TEF then right? But what about the increase from 50-55% for ouptuts. Is that good or bad?
10.12.2025 12:24 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Is this good or bad?
10.12.2025 12:21 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Greening the International Monetary Fund by Alexandros Kentikelenis and Thomas Stubbs
Open access via Cambridge University Press: doi.org/10.1017/9781...
#IMF #ClimateFinance #GlobalGovernance #ClimatePolicy
By tracing how climate issues are translated into lending, conditionality, and surveillance, we show how international organizations evolve when faced with new global challenges — often incrementally, and with tensions between innovation and continuity.
22.10.2025 14:24 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Overall, we find a complex picture.
The IMF is adapting — but unevenly.
Its climate engagement signals real institutional change, yet remains constrained by the same market logic that has long defined its approach to development.
Even the IMF’s climate advice is framed within familiar parameters: carbon pricing and market-friendly de-risking.
This selective approach helps align climate policy with existing economic orthodoxy, rather than transforming it.
Yet, the bulk of IMF lending still reflects older priorities.
Fiscal tightening and market-oriented reforms remain central — policies that can constrain climate investment and limit fiscal space for a just green transition.
The RSF represents genuine innovation.
It channels new resources (recycled SDRs) to countries undertaking climate-related reforms, often around public investment management, fiscal frameworks, and private climate finance mobilisation.
We identify three organizational dynamics:
1️⃣ Innovation – The RSF introduces new, long-term finance for climate adaptation and mitigation.
2️⃣ Inertia – Traditional IMF loans still prioritise fiscal consolidation.
3️⃣ Experimentation – Climate advice appears in surveillance and Article IV reports.
Using new cross-national data and case studies, we find that the Fund’s climate turn is real but limited.
Climate objectives are now present across IMF activities — but in uneven, and often contradictory, ways.
Our book asks three core questions:
1️⃣ How much progress has the IMF made in greening its operations?
2️⃣ What is the policy track record of its climate lending?
3️⃣ How do traditional lending and surveillance activities incorporate climate risks?
This marks a major evolution for the Fund — an institution historically focused on monetary stability and fiscal adjustment, not environmental protection.
Yet integrating climate concerns into macroeconomic management is now seen as “macro-critical.”
The IMF has positioned itself as a central actor in climate policy. Since 2021, it has launched a Climate Strategy and created the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) to support countries facing adaptation and mitigation challenges.
22.10.2025 14:24 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Our new book — Greening the International Monetary Fund (Cambridge University Press, 2025) — examines how climate change has become embedded within the IMF’s operations, and what this means for global economic governance.
📖 Open access: doi.org/10.1017/9781...
The US Treasury has put the ongoing IMF Surveillance review at the top of the agenda as they want to stop the Fund’s work on climate. But what’s the IMF’s track record since the 2021 Climate Strategy?
Read more in our new @re-course.org report: bit.ly/IMFsurveillance
🧵1/9
Teal blue background, white text. Heading says "IMF climate action: green rhetoric, grey reality?" Subheading says "Read our assessment of IMF surveillance and climate action, with recommendations for the current surveillance policy review". Screenshot of report cover page showing a grey building covered by green vines. White background at the bottom with logos of Recourse and four co-publishing organisations.
Only 4 years ago, the IMF recognised that climate change poses risks to macroeconomic stability.
It cannot be ignored.
Our new report shows how and why the #IMF can't give up on climate, with recommendations for its Surveillance review.
👉 bit.ly/IMFsurveilla... #IMFmeetings
Read my article with Sakiko Fukuda-Parr on #FinancingForDevelopment - Financing for whom?
@ipsunbureau.bsky.social @endausterity.bsky.social
#FfD4 #EndAusterity #UniversalSocialProtection #RighttoSocialSecurity #Inequality
www.ipsnews.net/2025/04/fina...
I agree with the sentiment entirely. I do it for free because it's - at least indirectly - required for promotion to professor (i.e. evidence of respect within the field and also fills 'external service'). (More) free labour not accounted for in our workload model. My heart is now full of hate.
07.04.2025 23:54 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
You may have seen @gerrymccartney1.bsky.social quoted in the media talking about the implications of the Chancellor's Spring Statement. He's part of a group of experts who have warned that welfare cuts could cause more deaths in @bmj.com
@uofgsocsci.bsky.social
www.gla.ac.uk/news/headlin...
"That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital"
—Noam Chomsky
And then it gets worse.
Awesome!
26.02.2025 08:11 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0This is a must-read.
12.02.2025 13:36 — 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Whenever you hear someone sneer about scientific research that seems useless to them — “they’re studying the spit of lizards?!” — remind them that’s exactly how we got Ozempic.
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
Verschärft der IWF durch verordnete Austerität die Ungleichheit? @akentikelenis.bsky.social & @thomstubbs.bsky.social präsentieren die bislang umfassendste empirische Analyse der sozialen Auswirkungen von IWF-Krediten. Henning Schmidtke vom GIGA Institut lobt das Buch als „Meilenstein“.
polisky
The government’s overall Oh well that’s how it is now attitude when one of the main pillars of your economy crumbles right there for everyone to see is quite difficult to comprehend.
01.02.2025 09:12 — 👍 50 🔁 22 💬 3 📌 0added @jeanmonnetrhul.bsky.social
22.01.2025 13:43 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Each for very different reasons, these were my fave books of 2024 📚
Happy new year friends ✨🍻
ps. Emma’s book (on the political economy of care & its value, second most sold in DK last year) will be out in English in Spring 2025. Keep an eye out 🧐
Added @uhackett.bsky.social @jseglow.bsky.social and @jamessloam.bsky.social
10.01.2025 22:54 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0