Washington: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) today said any policy framework to deal with global emissions need to include economies such as India, China, Brazil and Russia since "they are expected to produce 70 per cent of global emissions during the next 50 years."

"Any policy framework that does not include large and fast-growing economies (such as Brazil, China, India, and Russia) ... Would be extremely costly and politically untenable," the IMF said in releasing analytical chapters of its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook.

For the multilateral policy to be effective, it said that all countries must participate because emerging and developing economies are expected to produce 70 per cent of global emissions during the next 50 years.

"It was possible to fight global warming without negatively impacting economic growth.

"Climate change is a potentially catastrophic global externality and one of the world's greatest collective action problems," it said.

To curb global warming, the IMF suggests a worldwide long-term scheme of gradual increases in carbon prices. Carbon-dioxide emissions are largely blamed for the rise in greenhouse gases that are heating the planet.

Such a framework would "induce the needed shifts in investment and consumption away from emission-intensive products and technologies."

Source : PTI