March 9, 2004

The Copenhagen Consensus

From The Economist comes the story of an interesting group of people and: bq. A modest undertaking Governments have limited resources for addressing the world's economic challenges. What should come first? bq. This week, Denmark's Environmental Assessment Institute, together with The Economist, announced plans to ask some of the world's leading economic thinkers a very awkward question. Policymakers face enormous demands on their aid budgets—and on their intellectual and political capital as well—when they try to confront the many daunting challenges of economic development and underdevelopment. Climate change, war, disease, financial instability and more all clamour for attention, and for remedies or palliatives that cost money. Given that resources are limited, the question is this: What should come first? Where, among all the projects that governments might undertake to make the world a better place, are the net returns to their efforts likely to be greatest? The topics of discussion are: bq. Climate change, Communicable diseases, Armed conflicts, Education, Financial instability, Governance and corruption, Malnutrition and hunger, Population and migration, Sanitation and water and Subsidies and trade barriers. The group is headed by Bjorn Lomborg (“The Skeptical Environmentalist”). Looks interesting. The premise is very true - nations have limited resources and where should the money and time be spent - what will do the greatest good... Something to follow for future blogs. Also, I had written about Lomborg before - his book came under massive attack but he was exonerated last December The group's website is here although as of this writing, it was down. Lomborg's website is here Posted by DaveH at March 9, 2004 11:40 AM