English

Bangladesh has made great strides in many areas, including poverty eradication and life expectancy. There are still many opportunities for investments that improve the nation's future and transform lives.

Recently, a high-level team of prominent Bangladeshi development and economics leaders and a Nobel Laureate in Economics identified a prioritised list of such opportunities. They were tasked with answering the question: “What policies and investments would give Bangladesh the most impact for every taka spent?” 

Are droughts, hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters getting stronger and more frequent? Are carbon dioxide emissions, global temperatures and sea levels putting us on a path for climate catastrophe? Bjorn Lomborg, Director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, breaks down the facts about the environment and shows why the reality of climate change may be very different from what you hear in the media.

Improving energy efficiency is a fashionable policy that governments worldwide promote. On paper, it seems a no-brainer: improving energy efficiency is sold as cost-reducing, job-creating, and planet-saving. Win, win, win – and the media often help close the deal, focusing entirely on all the supposed upsides. But there is another side – a downside – to the story.

Ten months ago, world leaders gathered at the United Nations to adopt 169 targets that will shape much of the $2.5tn expected to be spent on development assistance over the next 15 years, along with many trillions of dollars of national budgets.

This week government ministers return to discuss the implementation of the sustainable development goals, amid growing recognition of the challenges of pursuing so many well-meaning ambitions at once.

Bjorn Lomborg stopped by the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal to speak with Mary Kissel, WSJ Editorial Board Member.

Watch the entire interview in which Bjorn discusses how the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Agenda could have the biggest bang-for-the-buck by spending just little bit more of the development aid on the smartest targets.

Is Greenpeace committing a crime against humanity?

A letter from 110 Nobel laureates suggests as much. It urges the environmental group to drop its campaign against genetically modified foods, particularly so-called “Golden Rice,” which could help prevent millions of deaths in the developing world.

Calling GMOs food “Frankenfood” is a brilliant scare-mongering term, heavily promoted by Greenpeace. But it has no basis in reality.

OVER THE NEXT 15 years, a rough calculation suggests that at least $2.5 trillion will be spent on development assistance. Where this spending goes will largely be dictated by 169 development targets that the United Nations has endorsed for the next decade and a half. Next week, government ministers will return to New York to discuss the implementation of the Sustainable Development Agenda, amid growing recognition of the headache of trying to pursue so many different well-meaning ambitions at once.

When President Obama flew to Ottawa, Canada, on Wednesday to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, promoting their climate-change policies was near the top of the agenda. “The Paris Agreement was a turning point for our planet,” the leaders’ joint statement said, referring to the climate pact signed with fanfare in April by nearly 200 nations. “North America has the capacity, resources and the moral imperative to show strong leadership building on the Paris Agreement and promoting its early entry into force.”

Jim Brown of CBC's The 180 interviews Dr. Bjorn Lomborg.

"There are generally two schools of thought when it comes to climate change: it is bad, or it doesn't exist. But Bjorn Lomborg wants that to change. He says it's important to recognize that there are some benefits to climate change, and to come up with more innovative ways to tackle the negatives. 

Every day, policymakers around the world face a dizzying array of choices. The more they spend on, say, education, the less there is to run hospitals, fight pollution or boost agricultural productivity. Lobby groups, activists and the media promote certain causes — solar panels, the Zika virus, closing tax loopholes immediately — while less fashionable issues, such as nutrition or non-communicable diseases, can slip beneath the radar.