debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
Angela Merkel’s European policy has so far not succeeded in solving the Eurozone crisis and has been widely criticised across Europe. The recent Italian election has again shown the level of discontent with Europe’s political direction. If you are part of the next German government what would you like to change in the German European policy approach? [...]
We are living through not one but two crises of capitalism. The first one – the economic crisis which has followed the financial crash of 2008 – everyone knows about. The second is less familiar. This is the crisis of the global environment. Of course environmentalists have been warning of ‘environmental crisis’ for over 50 [...]
As is customary at the start of a new year, imposing statistics and trend forecasts are being trumpeted worldwide. For example, in 2016, China is expected to replace the United States as the world’s largest economy. And, by 2040, India’s population will have reached 1.6 billion, surpassing China’s, which will have stagnated a decade earlier. [...]
In the shadow of the euro crisis and America’s fiscal cliff, it is easy to ignore the global economy’s long-term problems. But, while we focus on immediate concerns, they continue to fester, and we overlook them at our peril. The most serious is global warming. While the global economy’s weak performance has led to a [...]
Michael Jacobs argues that green growth speaks directly to the economic priority of governments. Environmental policies, as well as tackling environmental costs, can address other market failures which inhibit growth, help boost aggregate demand, stimulate employment, and drive innovation. Over the past four years the concept of ‘green growth’ has burst onto the international policy scene. [...]
In the wood next to our house live at least one fox and maybe some badgers. We have seen badgers around, but it was only this summer that we first saw a badger walking (or more accurately sniffing) its way through our garden. It caused great excitement. On a walk from our house is someone [...]
The global financial crisis offers a big opportunity for progressive politicians to reenergise the green agenda. Dieter Helm assesses why we have failed to tackle the issue of global warming in the past and considers whether ‘Green Growth’ is likely to be a part of global economic recovery No significant progress has been made in [...]
To keep the EMU functioning we do not need a fiscal union with budgetary and redistributive powers. What we need is common bank resolution mechanism including some form of shared responsibility to rule out the very possibility of European banking system collapse. The crisis has forced member states to agree on major changes amounting to [...]
At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, the global community discussed which environmental objectives have been achieved over the past 20 years and the sustainability strategy needed for the decades ahead. 40 years ago, the trade unions launched a debate on “qualitative growth” and “quality of life”. At the time, however, the congress “Quality of [...]
Voters in Greece, France and the United Kingdom have sent a clear signal in the past month that they want governments to give priority to jobs and opportunities as well as reducing deficits and debt. Lord Nicholas Stern argues that unleashing the low-carbon economy could achieve these goals. Framed by credible and stable policies, the European Union [...]
The Fukushima disaster in March reminded the world, 25 years after Chernobyl, that nuclear energy is anything but clean, secure, and affordable. Unfortunately, another nuclear catastrophe was needed to trigger a fresh debate on the use of nuclear power. Germany’s decision in June to phase out nuclear power by 2022 has provoked irritation among its [...]
The world is at a crossroads. Either the global community will join together to fight poverty, resource depletion, and climate change, or it will face a generation of resource wars, political instability, and environmental ruin. The World Bank, if properly led, can play a key role in averting these threats and the risks that they [...]
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