tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91730692067702594812009-09-21T21:57:15.542-07:00Globalisation, development, climate change and a personal journey - one guy trying to understand the contradictions in our complex world.Allennoreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173069206770259481.post-30188896396901475172007-02-22T12:32:00.000-08:002007-02-22T12:42:06.489-08:00

The U.S.Something has definitely changed in the nature of the climate change narrative in America. climate change denial is now all but dead. Don't expect anyone to come along and say - oops, we got it wrong...you guys were right all along - but the story is moving.However, there is still a gulf between the American perspective on climate change and that in the EU. The argument now is that

Allennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173069206770259481.post-59959025172889165792007-02-09T13:44:00.000-08:002007-02-02T03:39:44.333-08:00

My thought's on Bill Easterley's development theories will have to wait (again0. Too many fun things happening in the climate change space.Two things from the media have caught my eye in the last couple of weeks. Firstly, there have been a number of responses to the Stern report in the Financial Times. This is one of the big outcomes of the Stern report - lively debate from the mainstream

Allennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173069206770259481.post-89581932698698878102007-02-02T03:31:00.000-08:002007-02-02T03:39:44.367-08:00

A quick interlude to coincide with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's publication today.The summary linked to above probably rates as one of the most opaque and challenging reads I've seen for a long time. Why? Because political and peer scientific pressure has required such a precise reading of fairly indeterminate facts that a simple, concise and unambiguous communication is barely

Allennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173069206770259481.post-77178632014035062522007-01-30T07:50:00.000-08:002007-01-30T08:16:33.908-08:00

What should society be aiming for? This is a question with an easy answer but a big difference between rhetoric and reality.Development is what we should be targeting. This is a richer concept than economic growth. It allows us to enfold social objectives, sustainability and environmental features - even ethics or philosophical positions (see Sen's Development as Freedom).Economic growth is a

Allennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173069206770259481.post-82995596672802172262007-01-23T12:43:00.000-08:002007-01-23T13:08:50.725-08:00

I'm not sure how long it took to conceive the words "common but differentiated responsibility" but they are front and centre of any developing country conversation on climate change - in plain English - it's everyone's problem but the developed nations caused it so they can pay the lion's share to resolve the problem.This is true but the dynamics of energy consumption are now pushing the other

Allennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173069206770259481.post-24184189095260148662007-01-17T07:14:00.000-08:002007-01-17T07:38:41.116-08:00

I have free access to pretty much every book published in the UK (which is a lot of books) - but I bought this one after having read it already.Why? Well, I thought it was a book that I'd refer to over and over. It gives me a perspective. Here's why.The full title of the book is Global Capitalism - It's Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century...exciting stuff isn't it. A strange thing happened

Allennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173069206770259481.post-38335862110642048822007-01-12T07:42:00.000-08:002007-01-12T08:12:23.429-08:00

There are enough blogs out there stamping their foot on this issue - on one side or another of a Grand Canyon sized chasm. I've had the fortune of having divided the last decade pretty evenly between Europe and the U.S. On this topic, there still appears to be something larger than the Atlantic dividing the two continents. I'm not going to trawl through all the facts and counter facts - go watch

Allennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173069206770259481.post-73516431889911472782007-01-11T07:43:00.000-08:002007-01-11T08:04:56.824-08:00

The Millennium Development Goals are important. They consist of eight, time bound objectives for the global community to achieve - across a breadth of issues - disease, education, poverty, environment. There has been close to universal acceptance of the goals and the timeframe for delivery - 2015. Even the U.S. has signed up to this one.They are important to me because they make an unequivocal

Allennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173069206770259481.post-5418513501566296502007-01-09T07:02:00.000-08:002007-01-09T07:27:22.987-08:00

Enough of the pomp. A few statistics jumped into my head as I read the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 2006.Over the next 25 years, $20 trillion needs to be invested in energy infrastructure to keep pace with anticipated demand. Over $10 trillion dollars of that investment is required in developing countries.Today, 2.5 billion people still depend on traditional fuel sources -

Allennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9173069206770259481.post-18685234519869175322007-01-08T13:17:00.000-08:002007-01-30T13:47:01.817-08:00

Fifteen years in the bowels of an investment bank, polishing the plumbing of the derivatives markets - the lubricant that keeps the wheels of the global markets turning. It's a clear thinking and unambiguous existence...calculate the price and make the trade.Jump the chasm into the confusing world of environmental and developmental politics and all the harsh black and white tones are replaced

Allennoreply@blogger.com0