Spotlight Rio+20: South American Governments in Rio: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Eduardo Gudynas, guest blogger

Part of the Triple Crisis Spotlight Rio+20 series.

South American governments will attend the Rio +20 conference in a very strained environment: while at the national level, almost every country has undergone a weakening of its environmental management systems, at the international level, countries do not coordinate their positions. Particularly since such contradictions seem to go unnoticed by international analysts, especially from the English language media, it is necessary to explicitly describe them. Five key issues are presented below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Spotlight G20: A Good Place to Do Business?

Aldo Caliari, guest blogger

Part of the Triple Crisis Spotlight G-20 series.

At the G20 Summit Leaders may not have been able to agree on a lot of things. In fact, the European crisis was, like at the Cannes Summit last year, an urgent fire to put out. Its smoke helped cover the rest of the critical issues on which the world is still anxiously awaiting for this self-appointed committee to reshape the global financial and monetary system after the most severe financial crisis since the 1930s and to prove its worth.

But on other areas creeping movement is noticeable and worrisome. One of them is the approach to investment rules and the balance between attracting foreign investment and the need to preserve host countries’ policy space to regulate it appropriately so it serves development.

Read the rest of this entry »

Spotlight G-20: Does BRICS money for the IMF mean they are bailing out Europe?

Peter Chowla, guest blogger

Part of the Triple Crisis Spotlight G-20 series.

A joint statement by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) released in the middle of the G20 summit in Los Cabos spelled out their plans for contributing to a boost in the resources available to the International Monetary Fund. The IMF wanted more money to backstop countries from the risks facing the global economy, most notably in Europe. Did the BRICS just cave in to pressure and, through the IMF, bail out European banks who lent recklessly? Or is it part of a broader agenda of emerging markets to reform global economic institutions?

Read the rest of this entry »

Spotlight Rio+20: Desert Year:$3 Trillion Thought Experiment for Rio+20

Skip Laitner, guest blogger

Part of the Triple Crisis Spotlight Rio+20 series.

Because I roam the desert a lot, the UV Index is something I pay attention to.  It is an international standard that measures the strength of ultraviolet radiation from the sun at a given time and place. Canada was the first to adopt such an index in 1992. The U.S. followed in 1994, as have any subsequent number of countries since that time.  Today the World Health Organization (WHO) has standardized the UV Index by replacing the many different regional methods that otherwise provided an inconsistent set of results.

A UV index of zero is essentially a nighttime reading.  An index of 10 (highlighted by the color red) roughly corresponds to the midday sun beating down on the earth through a clear sky.  Here on the desert we often hit the extreme, at noon, with index of 11.  That is the color purple and not really all that uncommon.  And as I reflected on the thought experiment I am about to describe, yes, I was out on the desert floor at roughly the time when the UV Index hit purple.

Read the rest of this entry »

Spotlight G-20: Why do NGOs go to G-20 summits?

Christina Weller, guest blogger

Part of the Triple Crisis Spotlight G-20 series.

Los Cabos, Mexico – It certainly feels incongruous, working for an anti-poverty NGO and travelling to exclusive resorts such as Los Cabos in Mexico as part of your job. There are lots of reasons to think it’s not worth it. Should NGOs be lobbying at all? What does the G20 have to do with developing countries? What about the lack of access to decision makers (not to mention the lack of decisions at Summits these days)?

The answers to the questions are obviously not unconnected.

Read the rest of this entry »

Spotlight G-20: The G-20 Agricultural Agenda: Agricultural productivity growth in a vacuum

Sophia Murphy, guest blogger

Part of the Triple Crisis Spotlight G-20 series.

This critique of the G-20’s new interagency report on smallholder productivity appears in Spanish in the newsletter Puentes

When the Heads of State of the G20 countries meet in Los Cabos, Mexico on June 18-19, they will have plenty to discuss – not least, the fragile global economy and the instability of international finance. Food security is on their agenda as well. Yet after the intense focus on agriculture and food security under the leadership of France, both ahead of and during its time as host of the G20 in 2011, this year’s efforts are low-key.

Read the rest of this entry »

Spotlight G-20 & Rio+20: The G-20 Casts a Long Shadow over Rio

Peter Riggs, guest blogger

Part of the Triple Crisis Spotlight Rio+20 and Spotlight G-20 series.

What is the relation between the Rio+20 Earth Summit and the upcoming G-20 summit in Mexico?   These two events occur back-to-back, and both are at the ‘heads of state’ level.  This month should be an opportunity for serious international course-correction, right?

Read the rest of this entry »

Spotlight G-20 & Rio+20: The G-20 Casts a Long Shadow over Rio

Peter Riggs, guest blogger

Part of the Triple Crisis Spotlight Rio+20 and Spotlight G-20 series.

What is the relation between the Rio+20 Earth Summit and the upcoming G-20 summit in Mexico?   These two events occur back-to-back, and both are at the ‘heads of state’ level.  This month should be an opportunity for serious international course-correction, right?

Read the rest of this entry »

Confronting the Middle Income Trap: Policy Lessons from a Trans-regional Comparison

Eva Paus, guest blogger

The middle income trap is a new concept that strikes fear into the hearts of development practitioners. Analysts generally agree that the absence of broad-based upgrading towards more knowledge-intensive activities is at the heart of the middle income trap. But they differ in their explanation of the trap.  Some see it as a typical problem for middle income countries in the process of accumulating technological capabilities and emphasize internal causes (e.g. Eichengreen, Park and Shin 2011, Asian Development Bank 2011).  Others, including this author and her collaborators in a project on the middle income trap, argue that middle income countries have always faced the challenge of how to move from commodity production to more knowledge-intensive activities. But it is the current globalization context that is turning this challenge into a possible trap.

Read the rest of this entry »

The State of the World Economy and Policy Failures

Yılmaz Akyüz, guest blogger

After three years of recovery the world economy still remains highly fragile.  The short-term outlook is for contraction in several advanced economies (AEs) in Europe.  Growth in others, including the US, is weak and erratic.  But more importantly, medium term prospects are bleak almost everywhere.

There is considerable tension in financial markets.  Asset and commodity prices, risk spreads, capital flows and exchange rates are highly susceptible to sudden swings.  Currently the Achilles Heel of the international economy is the eurozone (EZ).  Consequently, the way the EZ crisis is handled is a major concern for DEs.

Read the rest of this entry »