Egypt, S.Arabia step up trade ties through coordination council talks    Egypt reviews progress on $200m World Bank-funded waste management hub    Egypt urges Israel to accept Gaza deal amid intensifying fighting    SCZONE showcases investment opportunities to eight Japanese companies    Egypt, ADIB explore strategic partnership in digital healthcare, investment    SCZONE, Tokyo Metropolitan Government sign MoU on green hydrogen cooperation    Egypt welcomes international efforts for peace in Ukraine    Al-Sisi, Macron reaffirm strategic partnership, coordinate on Gaza crisis    Contact Reports Strong 1H-2025 on Financing, Insurance Gains    Egypt, India's BDR Group in talks to establish biologics, cancer drug facility    AUC graduates first cohort of film industry business certificate    Egyptian pound down vs. US dollar at Monday's close – CBE    Egypt's FM, Palestinian PM visit Rafah crossing to review Gaza aid    Egypt prepares unified stance ahead of COP30 in Brazil    Egypt recovers collection of ancient artefacts from Netherlands    Egypt harvests 315,000 cubic metres of rainwater in Sinai as part of flash flood protection measures    Egypt, Namibia explore closer pharmaceutical cooperation    Fitch Ratings: ASEAN Islamic finance set to surpass $1t by 2026-end    Renowned Egyptian novelist Sonallah Ibrahim dies at 88    Egyptian, Ugandan Presidents open business forum to boost trade    Al-Sisi says any party thinking Egypt will neglect water rights is 'completely mistaken'    Egypt's Sisi warns against unilateral Nile measures, reaffirms Egypt's water security stance    Egypt's Sisi, Uganda's Museveni discuss boosting ties    Egypt, Huawei explore healthcare digital transformation cooperation    Egypt's Sisi, Sudan's Idris discuss strategic ties, stability    Egypt to inaugurate Grand Egyptian Museum on 1 November    Greco-Roman rock-cut tombs unearthed in Egypt's Aswan    Egypt reveals heritage e-training portal    Sisi launches new support initiative for families of war, terrorism victims    Egypt expands e-ticketing to 110 heritage sites, adds self-service kiosks at Saqqara    Palm Hills Squash Open debuts with 48 international stars, $250,000 prize pool    On Sport to broadcast Pan Arab Golf Championship for Juniors and Ladies in Egypt    Golf Festival in Cairo to mark Arab Golf Federation's 50th anniversary    Germany among EU's priciest labour markets – official data    Paris Olympic gold '24 medals hit record value    A minute of silence for Egyptian sports    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







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A Time for Clarity
Published in Daily News Egypt on 17 - 02 - 2008

JOHANNESBURG - Terrorism and global warming loom, in many people's minds, as the greatest threats to the planet. In the United States, the Bush administration wants to increase funding for border security and immigration enforcement by nearly 20%. More than $150 million is being spent to help transit systems in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut prevent and respond to terrorist attacks.
But international terrorism kills about 400 people in total each year. How much should we be willing to pay to reduce that death toll by, say, 25% - a billion dollars, a hundred billion?
Meanwhile, in Hawaii, policymakers gathered to discuss a climate change treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. The environmental lobby groups want the next treaty to go much further than Kyoto, which is already setting the world back $180 billion a year. Indeed, efforts to slow global warming through the Kyoto Protocol or a similar treaty will make a miniscule difference, delaying temperature rises by just seven days by 2100.
A tenth of the annual cost of the Kyoto Protocol - or a tenth of the US budget this year for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - would prevent nearly 30 million new infections of HIV/AIDS. The same sum could similarly be used to help the four million people who will die from malnutrition this year, the 2.5 million killed by indoor and outdoor air pollution, the two million who will die because they lack micronutrients (iron, zinc, and vitamin A), or the two million whose deaths will be caused by a lack of clean drinking water.
We know how to stop people from dying from malnutrition, pollution, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. Effective strategies are cheap and simple: it's mostly a question of getting what's needed (micronutrients, cleaner forms of fuel, free condoms, mosquito nets) to those in need. Death tolls remain high because we have limited resources to solve all the world's problems, and these problems are not our biggest concerns.
Governments and NGOs spend billions of dollars each year trying to help the world without explicitly considering whether they are achieving the most they can.They set priorities among the well-intentioned projects they finance, merely by deciding to do some things and not others - often based on political realities and media attention rather than rigorous scrutiny.
Panic about terrorism and climate change doesn't blind us entirely to other problems facing the planet, but our fear does distort the lens through which we see the big picture. I hope that a clearer picture will emerge when a roundtable of international economists convenes in May to assess more than 50 solutions to different global challenges as part of the "Copenhagen Consensus project.
The participants will use cost-benefit analysis to weigh up different strategies. The result will be a prioritized list of solutions, showing which projects promise the greatest benefits compared to their costs. Should the world steam head-on into another Kyoto Protocol-style agreement? Should we make air pollution our top priority?
Some object strongly to the idea of using economic tools to weigh the world's biggest problems. But this is a way to get honest about what works and what doesn't. It's too easy for politicians to throw more money at problems like terrorism, when some nations may already spend too much on security measures that merely shift attacks around. We need to know.
When we acknowledge that some policies achieve little, we can debate other options. Maybe there are smarter ways to combat terrorism than expensive wars and ever more homeland security. Maybe we can tackle climate change better through less costly, more effective technology pushes. Maybe we will end up helping the world more by focusing on air pollution, education, or the condition of women.
We know how politicians make their spending decisions today. In May, we'll see how some of the world's best economists - including five Nobel laureates - would invest the same money to get the biggest benefits possible.
We will discover what could happen if politicians would rise above the distortion of the media's intense concentration on terrorism and climate change. The result should be a clearer focus on the world's biggest issues and their best solutions. Bjørn Lomborgis the organizer of Copenhagen Consensus, adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, and author of Cool It and The Skeptical Environmentalist. This commentary is published by DAILY NEWS EGYPT in collaboration with Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).


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