Copenhagen Consensus

The Copenhagen Consensus is a flagship attempt by Bjorn Lomborg's Environmental Assessment Institute to influence global priorities away from the current global consensus, including issues like Kyoto. It has been strongly criticised by NGOs such as Oxfam for drawing attention away from the existing consensus built up over several years and codified in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. It has also attracted criticism for an approach which tries to define development goals without involving any representatives from developing countries.

Since the conference was first announced, five of the seven board members of the EAI have resigned: two for personal reasons, and three in protest at the conference, which they say goes far beyond the EAI's original remit by considering subjects such as financial instability, corrupt governance and infectious diseases. [1], [2]

Due to take place in May 2004, it will take the form of a meeting of a selection of economists, who will consider a set of "challenge papers" on subjects such as education and climate change, and prioritise economic solutions to these problems.

The panel of experts is entirely composed of conservative economists (many of them Nobel prize winners).

Panel of Experts

• Jagdish Bhagwati
• Robert Fogel
• Bruno Frey
• James Heckman
• Justin Yifu Lin
• Douglass North
• Thomas Schelling
• Vernon L. Smith
• Nancy Stokey

Challenge Paper authors

• Professor Kym Anderson - Subsidies and Trade Barriers
• Professor Jere Behrman - Malnutrition and Hunger
• Senior Fellow, Dr. William R. Cline - Climate Change
• Professor Paul Collier - Conflicts
• Professor Barry Eichengreen - Financial Instability
• Professor W. Michael Hanemann - Sanitation and Water
• Professor Phillip L. Martin - Population: Migration
• Professor Anne Mills - Communicable Diseases
• Lecturer, Dr. Lant Pritchett - Education
• Professor Susan Rose-Ackerman - Government and Corruption

References

• Vanessa Houlder and Clare MacCarthy, Danish writer cleared of 'scientific dishonesty', Financial Times, December 17, 2003
• Mass exodus from Lomborg Institute, Copenhagen Post, 28 November, 2003.
• Geoff Dyer, Economists to rank aid effectiveness, Financial Times, Mar 05, 2004.
  • Alex Kirby, "Setting the world's priorities", BBC News Online,
• Mark Kinver, "[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3486894.stm 'Eco-myths are a gun to the head'], BBC News Online, February 27, 2004.