The $35 billion plan that could save 4.2 million lives a year

Over the past 21 years, Haiti has been hit by 40 cyclones, thunderstorms and heavy rains. Each year on average two events cause flooding and landslides with serious consequences for people and their livelihoods.

Haiti is more vulnerable than many nations because of the number of people living in poverty. Climate change means that these phenomena could increase in occurrence and severity.

In a wide-ranging interview with Swarajya, Bjorn Lomborg discusses why dramatic and frightening problems often command attention while less visible, more solvable challenges are neglected. He argues for using cost-benefit analysis to prioritize policies that can save the most lives and improve human welfare, while pursuing pragmatic climate adaptation and clean-energy innovation.

What's the best way for the United Nations to help the developing world? Right now, the organisation is in the process of setting its global development agenda for the next 15 years - and the most important thing to do is to set goals which it can actually achieve, and to work out what the best way to spend its money is. Economics may well show the way.