The Paris agreement approved by 195 countries in December contained an unexpectedly ambitious goal: to keep global warming within 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. We asked economists what they thought were the most urgent priorities to get the world on track towards that objective. Continue Reading
What’s the connection between climate and economics? In the past four decades debate has focused on the economic impacts of environmental degradation and regulation. Recently, however, the influence of economics on climate policy has evolved from a narrow focus on cost to large systemic change. Continue Reading
Several organisations alerted us to the broken links between economic growth and people’s wellbeing. More importantly, it appears that governments are taking notice. Could this be the dawn of an economic revolution? Continue Reading
What if we ranked countries by people’s wellbeing instead of Gross Domestic Product? The question seems odd as we are used to believe that the two go together, but the Social Progress Index 2015 shows that this is not always true. Continue Reading
With dwindling resources and growing social inequalities, it is not difficult to predict the next major threat to the planet: conflicts. “Many observers believe that the world is entering a new era of strategic competition among global powers,” says the World Economic Forum Global risks report. Continue Reading
The spectacular GDP growth recorded by some West African countries in the past 5 years is suddenly undermined by the spread of the Ebola virus. The epidemic has put under the spotlight the poor conditions of health systems in the region, but also the fragility of economic models measured only by Gross Domestic Product. Continue Reading