Soros Wants Rich Nations to Finance IMF Scheme

ALESSANDRO TORELLO
The Wall Street Journal
December 10, 2009

Financier George Soros, who’s declared he will invest up to $1 billion in low-carbon energy technology, waded into the dispute Thursday over how to finance efforts by poor countries to combat climate change by proposing that rich nations tap into special currency reserves issued by the International Monetary Fund.

Mr. Soros used the forum of the United Nations climate summit here to suggest that rich nations finance climate subsidies for developing nations by tapping into some of the $283 billion in special drawing rights that the International Monetary Fund issued to respond to the global financial crisis earlier this year. More than $150 billion of those rights went to the 15 biggest developed economies, he said. Special drawing rights, or SDRs, are a form of composite currency issued by the IMF to its members.

Mr. Soros is one of a cadre of global business and political figures in Copenhagen hoping to sway the bargaining among 190 nations over what should be done to cut global the carbon dioxide emissions linked to a trend of rising temperatures, and who should pay the price. The conference is scheduled to end Dec. 18 with a gathering of world leaders.

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