Ideas to Action:
Independent research for global prosperity
We cheer for the African teams, so we’re a little conflicted with the USA-Ghana grudge match in the World Cup tonight. We harbor no illusions about USA’s chances to win the tournament. But at least we’ll have the electricity to watch it.
We need to get ready for a world of a whole lot more energy. Recognizing and embracing this reality is a more practical starting point for meeting the development and environmental challenges that we face. That’s the bottom-line of Our High Energy Planet, a report by an eclectic mix of thirteen authors released today by the Breakthrough Institute and Arizona State University.
Today Bloomberg News reports that Russia's national monopoly, Gazprom, has shut down all natural gas shipments to the Ukraine as part of an escalating price war that has created an energy crisis in Europe.
Yesterday, I spoke at the 2008 U.S.-Africa Infrastructure Conference, Connecting the Continent, organized by the Corporate Council on Africa. I spoke about the infrastructure constraints faced by the private sector in Africa, particuarly the lack of a reliable supply of electricity.
Once again the G8 has come up tragically short on climate change and a host of urgent problems affecting poor people in developing countries. The good news is that they are at least discussing the right topics. The first Hokkaido G8 document, on the World Economy spills lots of ink on relations between rich and developing economies, including for example, reaffirmation of support for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Robert Zoellick outlined new approaches that the World Bank will take to help solve global problems today in a major speech delivered at an event organized by the Center for Global Development.
Just before the holidays, my colleague David Wheeler sent me a copy of a new publication from the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) of the World Bank. Titled "Technical and Economic Assessment of Off-grid, Mini-grid and Grid Electrification Technologies," it does not exactly jump off the shelf.
In U.S. jurisprudence, the standard for conviction in a criminal proceeding is "beyond a reasonable doubt" -- at least 90% certain, in the conventional understanding. The prevailing standard in civil proceedings is the "preponderance of evidence" -- more likely true than not -- which implies greater than 50% likelihood.
Today the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the first part of its long-awaited Fourth Assessment Report. This is a major event, because the Report strengthens the scientific consensus about the threat from global warming if we don't curb greenhouse gas emissions.
From D.C. to Dhaka, scores of people gathered around live broadcasts of President Bush to play CGD State of the Union bingo and watch the president’s first address to a new Democratic majority in Congress. The rules are simple: listen for key policy terms in Bush’s address and be the first to mark your bingo card. The point: U.S.
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