Owen Barder’s lecture about complexity and development raises questions about UK development policy and the role of sustainability in complexity theory.
Tag: UK
Another Rio banana skin for David Cameron
The Future We Want is the name of the Zero draft outcome document for the Rio+20 conference. Its content is not in line with the future the UK government wants.
Aid dilemmas bypassed by Busan Partnership
UK parliamentarians have instructed Andrew Mitchell to impose conditions on foreign aid to fragile or conflict-related countries such as Rwanda and Malawi. Have they given thought to what happens to the poor when aid is withdrawn as a punishment for bad government?
UK carries its climate credentials to Durban
Thanks to its pace-setting climate change legislation, the UK will occupy the moral high ground at the Durban climate talks. Will the minister put this advantage to the cause of the planet?
Quantitative monkey business
Development economists increasingly advise donors to give aid directly to the poor. Why does the Bank of England hand out its favours directly to the banks?
Glencore prospectus pong
There’s something fishy about the timing of Glencore’s London flotation in relation to implementation of the UK Bribery Act.
Politics dictates UK bilateral aid review
The UK International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, has a tough job in expanding UK aid when other government spending is being cut. His bilateral aid review chooses some risky partners.
REDD shafted by deepwater drilling concessions
Pressure builds on Indonesia to sign up to a moratorium on deforestation. Meanwhile, both US and UK governments refuse pleas for a moratorium on deepwater drilling for oil. Is this a contradiction?
The US Emperor brings no clothes to Cancún
The US position in the Cancún climate change conference is that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” Can it deliver its own side of this bargain?
Climate sceptics should try economics
One moment governments are spending their way out of recession; the next moment they’re imposing austerity cuts of historic proportions. The science of economics is in a far bigger mess than climate science.