Copenhagen Consensus

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The Copenhagen Consensus is a flagship attempt by Bjorn Lomborg's Environmental Assessment Institute to redefine global priorities in line with his attacks on the Kyoto agreement, which he claims is costly, politically untenable, and of dubious benefit.

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

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]

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.

Finally, it has been questioned if a panel of exclusively free-market thinkers, several of whom have published views sceptical of the Kyoto consensus, can produce what is supposedly a neutral output on the issue [3].

Lomborg told BBC Online that his expecation was that the conference would provide direction on funding priorities. "The world faces a series of serious problems such as pollution, hunger and disease. Which problem should be addressed first? … We all wish there was enough money to solve every problem. But there is a limit to how much money we have. Therefore politicians prioritise every day, but not always on the best basis. Copenhagen Consensus will provide a framework to allow us to prioritise sensibly," he told BBC Online. [4]

However, Lomborg has made abundantly clear that allocating resources to combatting climate change would be at a cost of what he points to as more important issues such as access to clean drinking water.[5]

"I'm not saying that this [climate change] is a question of me saying, "oh, it's going to be a little problem", I'm saying all of the models have looked at, what will be the costs and benefits. We should do something else. We can actually do a lot more good elsewhere," Loborg said in one interview. [6]

The experts will discuss the 10 essential problems selected by Lomborg: climate change, communicable diseases, conflicts, education, financial instability, governance and corruption, malnutrition and hunger, migration, sanitation and water, and subsidies and trade barriers.

Panel of Experts

Challenge Paper authors

References

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