World Bank

For too long, world leaders have tried appealing to our better angels to bring about a solution to climate change. It’s time they aimed a little lower, at our hip pockets.

Far from being the greatest moral challenge of our times, as Kevin Rudd framed it, climate change is shaping up as one of the greatest economic challenges of our times. Paying more under a carbon tax? You’ll pay even more if the business-as-usual climate change scenario is allowed to play out.

Soaring food prices, water prices and home insurance premiums - these things are already happening to some degree. You can add to that the widespread destruction of jobs in agriculture, fishing, forestry and tourism industries. These are just some of the warnings contained in a report released this week by the world’s most venerable and conservative economic body, the World Bank.

Continue reading "Deliver the climate message via the hip pocket" »

The Australian aid sector’s fury at the aid budget cuts announced on Tuesday has been focused on the dollar figure that the Government has (or rather, hasn’t) allocated to foreign aid.

But there’s another reason to be angry.

Alongside its much-smaller-that-promised aid budget, the Gillard government delivered another announcement. “Australia is deepening its engagement with effective multilateral organisations including the Development Banks,” Foreign Minister Carr blogged proudly on Wednesday.

Continue reading "What happened to the Govt’s promise to help the poor?" »