|
|
|
|
Feed kids,
watch nations grow
Australia's government is reshaping its development priorities. In The Australian newspaper, Lomborg recommends to provide children in poor countries in Asia Pacific with nutrition, micronutrient supplements and deworming tablets in the critical first 1000 days of life.
For just 15% of Australia's annual aid budget - $770m - we could avoid almost 700,000 kids being stunted each year. In economic terms, such an investment is likely to achieve long-term benefits of $42 billion every year.
|
|
A great way to feel good with other people's money
Would you be willing to lose 72% of your pension money to feel good about yourself? World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and others tell us that because of global warming, pension funds should drop fossil fuels and instead invest in green assets.
But if you invested $100 in fossil fuels stocks in 2002, your stocks would be worth about $238 today, whereas the same $100 invested in renewable stocks would be worth about $28.
Read Lomborg's first post as a LinkedIn-Influencer and follow him.
|
|
To Keep Poor People Poor
President Obama has laudably launched a Power Africa initiative, aiming to increase electricity generation and access to modern energy services. If Obama spends the next $10 billion on gas electrification, he can help lift 90 million people out of energy poverty. If he uses renewables, the same $10 billion can help just 20-27 million people.
Lomborg writes in USA Today and Berlingske (in Danish) that our development aid should be used to help 60 million more people out of poverty, not as a tool to make us feel virtuous about facile, green choices.
|
|
The Davos Apocalypse
There is something unsettling about the global power elite jetting into an exclusive Swiss ski resort and telling the rest of the world to stop using fossil fuels.
In newspapers around the world, e.g. All Africa, The Korea Times, The Australian or Periódico AM (Mexico, in Spanish), Lomborg comments on how a weak grasp of facts leads UN's climate chief to even question democracy.
Read the full commentary in six languages on Project Syndicate.
|
|
Give a voice to those who have none
Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called climate change the biggest challenge of our time. But what challenges the well-being of people today is lack of food, basic health care, quality education and access to markets. These problems we can address at low cost with high impacts, Lomborg writes in his response for the Washington Post.
|
|
Smarter solutions to climate change
In a full spread interview with top Norwegian newspaper Bergens Tidende, Lomborg discusses climate change policies and the impact of various solutions such as shale gas, renewable energy and electric cars.
Similarly, in his interview with Schwäbische Zeitung (in German), Lomborg assesses the cost and benefits of Germany's Energiewende (energy turnaround) and explains that investments in green R&D would be a lot more promising than the expensive subsidization of renewables.
|
|
Book review
How Much Have Global Problems Cost the World?
 
"In this interesting collection, expert analysts assess the costs of ten global problems over the past century, measured in economic terms, and make projections about their costs in 2050. (...) There is value in its attempt to quantify the effects of problems that are typically discussed only in qualitative and often emotional terms and in the way it shows how much progress has been made -- and how much further the world needs to go."
Order the book on amazon.com or learn more about the project on the Copenhagen Consensus Center's website. |
|
|
Thank you for your continued interest and we hope you enjoy these occasional updates, if you do not wish to receive news about Bjørn Lomborg and the Copenhagen Consensus in the future, you can easily remove your email from our mailing list.
Best wishes,
Zsuzsa Horvath
Executive Assistant to Bjorn Lomborg
US online phone number: +1-347-903-0979
Office cell in Budapest: +36-306920720
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
