Childbirth needn’t be this deadly

The UN has promised to achieve universal education since 1950, and currently contemplates this target for its 2015-30 development goals again.

But with 60 million children still out of school, the international community should not simply postpone the same universal-education target until 2030. Instead, it is time to abandon this unrealistic goal in favor of an achievable, targeted, and cost-effective approach.

At the U.N., a Free-for-All on Setting Global Goals

MAY 6, 2014

by Eduardo Porter

"There are, of course, better and worse ideas. Bjorn Lomborg of the Copenhagen Consensus, who achieved renown by arguing that current efforts to cut carbon emissions to slow climate change cost too much and deliver too little, argues that many of the new targets also fail the test. He has been making the rounds among diplomats, showing them the results of cost-benefit analyses of some of the ideas on the table..."

Lomborg's thoughts appear in the article Cash-strapped families face £1,000-a-year bill to help Government beat climate change (as if we didn't have enough problems); on the UK Government's decision to set a 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2050.

The Government's climate change committee estimates this will cost 1-2 % of the GDP. At current values this is £24 billion  -  or £1,200 per household.