Lomborg's Project Syndicate op-ed: Green Bootleggers and Baptists

COPENHAGEN – Despite gains in life expectancy, expanded access to education, and lower rates of poverty and hunger, the world has a long way to go to improve the quality of people’s lives. Almost a billion people still go to bed hungry, 1.2 billion live in extreme poverty, 2.6 billion lack access to clean drinking water and sanitation, and almost three billion burn harmful materials inside their homes to keep warm.

Is global warming to blame for the Syrian war? Democratic presidential candidates Pete Buttigieg, Beto O'Rourke and Bernie Sanders seem to think so. At the CNN climate town hall this month, Buttigieg and O'Rourke referred to climate change as a national security threat that contributed to causing the Syrian civil war. “Wars that were precipitated by climate change, like Syria, will pale in comparison to the wars that we see in the future,” O'Rourke warned. Both candidates follow the lead of Sanders, who has long claimed that “climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism”.

The goal of Copenhagen Consensus 2012 was to set priorities among a series of proposals for confronting ten great global challenges. A panel of economic experts, comprising some of the world’s most distinguished economists, was invited to consider these issues. The ten challenge papers, commissioned from acknowledged authorities in each area of policy, included nearly 40 proposals for the panel’s consideration. During the conference the panel examined these proposals in detail.