COPENHAGEN – Where should the global community focus its attention over the next 15 years? Health, nutrition, and education may seem like obvious choices; more surprisingly, there is a strong case for making broadband access a top priority. Consider this simple fact: Tripling mobile Internet access over the next 15 years could make the developing world $22 trillion richer. Such improvement in the lives and earning potential of poor people could indirectly help with the other challenges; after all, more prosperous people tend to be healthier, better fed, and more highly educated.

What would happen if we brought broadband internet to 3 billion people in the developing world?

El ébola ha recibido gran parte de la atención en 2014, y ha matado a unas 8.000 personas. En el mismo período de tiempo, sin embargo, alrededor de 4 millones de personas murieron a causa del sida, la tuberculosis (TB) y la malaria. La verdad es que, a pesar del gran progreso en la atención sanitaria, la mayor parte del mundo está siendo devastada por una enfermedad prevenible, siendo los más pobres quienes más sufren. La buena noticia es que la lucha contra estas enfermedades resulta ser una extraordinaria buena inversión. 

¿Cuál es el mayor asesino ambiental del mundo? Para sorpresa de muchos, es la contaminación del aire, causando la muerte de 7 millones de personas al año, o una de cada ocho muertes a nivel mundial.

Reliable and affordable energy is vital for today's developing and emerging economies. Driven mostly by its fivefold increase in coal use, China's economy has grown 18-fold in the past 30 years and lifted 680 million people out of poverty. Worldwide, almost three billion people still don't have access to modern energy, instead they use firewood, dung and crop waste for cooking and heating indoors, which is so polluting, the World Health Organization estimates they kill one of every 13 people that die on the planet.

Die Millennium-Entwicklungsziele, die 2000 benannt wurden, waren ehrgeizig. Doch viele Vorhaben gingen in Erfüllung. Immer weniger Menschen leiden an Hunger. 2015 könnte das Problem gelöst sein.

De laatste twintig jaar is de traditionele klimaataanpak duidelijk en eensgezind geweest: we moeten hernieuwbare energiebronnen zoals windturbines en zonnecellen subsidiëren om de CO2-uitstoot te verminderen. Dit is het verminderingstraject. Toch haalt de wereld vandaag de dag, ondanks eindeloze klimaattoppen en goede bedoelingen, slechts 0,4 procent van zijn energie uit zonne- en windenergie. De CO2-uitstoot blijft maar toenemen.

La extrema pobreza --vivir con menos de 1,25 dólares al día, según estimaciones actuales-- es un problema constante para demasiadas personas hoy en día.

COPENHAGEN – At the start of the twenty-first century, the international community made some smart and simple promises with the so-called Millennium Development Goals. The world would halve the proportion of people suffering from hunger and living in extreme poverty, achieve universal primary education, and dramatically reduce child mortality by 2015. There have been many successes, though not all of the MDGs’ targets will be achieved. 

There's a large number of proposals on how to address poverty in the post-2015 development agenda -- from more social inclusion to full employment, more happiness, increased resilience and more. A new paper argues to continue focusing on reducing extreme poverty and drop the rest, as Lomborg writes for Huffington Post.