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Hurricanes batter our coasts. Wildfires rage across the American West. Glaciers collapse in the Artic. Politicians, activists, and the media espouse a common message: climate change is destroying the planet, and we must take drastic action immediately to stop it. Children panic about their future, and adults wonder if it is even ethical to bring new life into the world.
Enough, argues Bjorn Lomborg in his new book False Alarm - How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet. Climate change is real, but it’s not the apocalyptic threat that we’ve been told it is. Projections of Earth’s imminent demise are based on bad science and even worse economics. In panic, world leaders have committed to wildly expensive but largely ineffective policies that hamper growth and crowd out more pressing investments in human capital, from immunization to education. False Alarm will convince you that everything you think about climate change is wrong — and points the way toward making the world a vastly better, if slightly warmer, place for us all.
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“You’ll die of old age, I’ll die of climate change,” reads a typical poster held by teenagers in climate rallies across the world. The media, activists and even politicians are unabashedly indulging in climate alarmism, stoking the fears of millions. This alarmism is not only false but morally unjust. It leads us to make poor decisions based on fear, when the world not only has gotten better, but will be even better over the century.
Read Bjorn Lomborg's article for New York Post which was adapted from False Alarm.
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Media interest in False Alarm has been immense, and Lomborg was booked for a large number of interviews on TV, radio and podcasts. Here's an incomplete list of discussions on the book, with more to come over the following weeks:
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Adam Carolla Show
The Hoover Institution at Stanford University
Coffee with Scott Adams
Science Salon with Michael Shermer
The Lars Larson Show
Power Hour with Alex Epstein
The Politics People with Paul Duddridge
The John and Ken Show
The Dennis Prager Show
Consumer Choice Radio
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For decades, climate activists have exhorted people in the wealthy West to change their personal behavior to cut carbon emissions. The Covid-19 pandemic has now achieved these goals, at least temporarily. The enormous reduction in global economic activity has resulted in the biggest year-to-year reduction since World War II. Unfortunately, it will have almost no discernible impact on climate change.
Does that mean we simply give up on combating climate change? Not at all. Perhaps the smartest policy move would be to dramatically increase investment in green energy research and development to bring the price of green energy down below that of fossil fuels. Currently the U.S. and other rich countries spend very little on green innovation and waste trillions on inefficient feel-good policies like boosting this or that favored behavior or technology, from electric cars and solar panels to biofuels. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the inadequacy of this piecemeal approach. What we really need is an energy revolution.
Lomborg's analysis was published on the front page of The Wall Street Journal's weekend review section.
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Costly green deals are no panacea for pandemic woes
After the enormous economic damage of coronavirus lockdowns, calls for a ‘green’ economic recovery with a Green New Deal are growing louder all around the world. Unfortunately, the green deals which have been drafted for the US and the EU are likely to cost tens of trillions of dollars, while helping only a little with climate change. As we begin our global climb out of the corona depression, we shouldn’t start by letting bad green deals make us poorer, help climate little and ignore the many other, urgent needs of the world.
Read Lomborg's new column which has been published in multiple languages by prominent newspapers around the globe, including National Post (Canada), The Australian, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany, print), Hartford Courant (USA, print), Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden), New Zealand Herald, Daily Nation (Kenya), Berlingske (Denmark), The Citizen (Tanzania), Bergens Tidende (Norway), Punch (Nigeria), La Tercera (Chile), Milenio (Mexico), La Prensa (Nicaragua), allAfrica, Perfil (Argentina), El Universo (Ecuador) and Los Tiempos (Bolivia).
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When false climate alarm makes us insist on invoking climate at every turn, we end up helping the world only a little at a very high cost. We can – and must – do more, better and faster.
Lomborg argues in Canada's newspaper of record, The Globe and Mail, that we need to tone down the alarmism and focus on feasible solutions. Moreover - as the corona pandemic has shown - the exclusive focus on climate change neglects that the world faces many other large challenges that we can also engage in so much more effectively.
The article was also syndicated across Latin America, e.g. in Milenio (Mexico), Perfil (Argentina) and La Tercera (Chile) and Los Tiempos (Bolivia).
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 What is the point of climate change policy? To make the world a better place for all of us, and for future generations. In False Alarm, Bjorn Lomborg analyzes a lot of ways to make smart climate policy—and many that unfortunately waste resources. But we also need to ask ourselves the broader question: If the goal is to make the world a better place, is climate change policy the most important thing to focus on?
Read an excerpt from the book in Fortune.
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Priorities for Ghana's future
Ghana's National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has said it would ensure all government projects and programs go through cost benefit analysis to safeguard crucial investments in the country’s infrastructure. The NDPC has partnered with Copenhagen Consensus on the Ghana Priorities project, which aims to provide government and the international donor community with a systematic process to help prioritize the most effective policy solutions.
In August, the research will be presented to an eminent panel including the Nobel Prize-winning economist Finn Kydland and other renowned Ghanaian economist and development decision-makers. They will review the research papers and propose effective development priorities for Ghana.
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Industrial transformations for growth and development
 Even with Ghana’s impressive economic growth in recent times, the country’s industries still lag behind the services sector in its contribution to both GDP and employment. Ghana needs to build up its industry to promote overall growth for the long term.
 To transform Ghana’s industrial sector, researchers for Ghana Priorities analyzed a series of interventions designed to improve profitability, economic growth, and employment.
Read a summary of their research in Bjorn Lomborg's article for Ghana's leading newspaper Daily Graphic.
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Cost-Effective Strategies to Reduce Flooding
 Rapid urbanization in Ghana's capital Accra has caused an unplanned expansion of built-up areas like roads, parking lots and other structures with impervious surfaces, which has led to perennial flooding. Accra urgently needs a comprehensive flood risk mitigation strategy that includes environmental sanitation, drainage facilities and improved waste management.
 To target the problem of flooding in Accra, researchers for Ghana Priorities studied three interventions: the construction of retention ponds for stormwater runoff, widening storm drains, and a community-led solid waste management project.
Read a summary of their research in Bjorn Lomborg's article for Ghana's leading newspaper Daily Graphic.
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