The stubborn optimist
Christiana Figueres is the force behind the historic 2015 Paris Agreement and convener of Mission 2020, which seeks to bend the global curve on greenhouse emissions by 2020. She is also a self-declared “stubborn optimist”, which she credits as the root of her astounding success on a path that has led so many to failure. …
READ MORE
Frontier technologies and empowerment finance
“Never before have we seen such a technology as transformational as blockchain — whether it‘s being used to send immediate foreign aid via crypto, or to generate IDs for refugees — it has the power to change the way the developing parts of the world work while enabling more developed nations to efficiently share resources. The…
READ MORE
The voice of impact
‘Here’s how this often unfolds: seeking comparable, aggregate measures of impact, investors identify “what” measures they need and ask their investees to provide them. Investees typically don’t have access to these data, so they instead share sales or employment figures. The impact investor then converts these into “lives impacted” numbers and makes approximations of impact—such…
READ MORE
The Age of Impunity
In the brief moments when it has been possible this week for the British press to consider anything other than ballots and political psychodrama, some might have noticed David Miliband, turning our sights to much bigger problems than Brexit. There are now 70.8m forcibly displaced people worldwide. Half of them are children. Less than 1%…
READ MORE
Whose advice are you buying?
Whose advice are you buying? In 1992 I co-founded the UK’s third independent international advisory firm. I did this just as the City was entering its fastest period of growth, fueled by the Big Bang of ’86. I did this because I knew then, as I know now, that systems will burn when independence is…
READ MORE
The good report
Early this months, two reporters – imprisoned in Myanmar for reporting on the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims – were released and pardoned. This was a long overdue step toward peaceful reconciliation for the state, as outlined by Kofi Annan and his Advisory Commission before he passed away. Kofi’s work championed press freedom as the…
READ MORE
Winds of change
April has been the month where London saw climate grind capitalism to a halt. However fleetingly, however transient, numerous bodies glued in protest to the walls of London’s financial centres and the ominous silence of Oxford Street – transformed, this last fortnight, from an artery of consumerism into a post-apocalyptic camp for climate refugees –…
READ MORE
The ageing roadblock
‘Beyond the pure politics and economics, experts in Finland say the debate on ageing needs to be rethought. Prof Vaarama says that it is wrong to classify all people aged over 65 as “old”. She argues true old age starts at 80-85. Before that, people could still be working and be consumers in the new so-called “silver…
READ MORE
The human cost
In the midst of our data-age, true advocates of an evidence-based world view remain rare. Dr Hans Rosling is one. Economist Alan Krueger is another. He was, as Tim Harford chronicles in his moving obituary, ‘an authority on happiness and pain’, whose work spearheaded the ‘credibility revolution’ that would drag economics from the lofty heights…
READ MORE
The skills scandal
A pro-business government also needs to be a pro-education government – specifically, pro the education that equips students with the skills of the present and the future. The yawning gap between graduates and unfilled job roles suggest the UK’s current system, like many around the world, is struggling to achieve either. The Institute…
READ MORE
A penny for your thoughts
How do we square the mood of ethical consumption with the reality of the stock market? As the British high street continues to gasp its way through 2019, fast fashion brand Boohoo, doubled its profit and now sits on a £2bn+ stock market valuation. In its stratospheric rise, this retail giant has become a fable…
READ MORE
The new business playbook
As ever, The Economist said it first. Recent trends confirm that we are now in the era of ‘slowbalisation’. The hyper-growth of globalisation, which has fundamentally transformed global economies, national identity, ways of life and individual prosperity – for tremendous good and tremendous ill – has run out of steam. For those paying attention, this…
READ MORE