Jeffrey D. Sachs's Blog, page 7

2030 goals light a path to the post-Trump era

ImpactAlpha, July 12 –– … To get a fix on how we’re doing, I caught up with the economist Jeff Sachs, the Columbia University professor who serves as a special advisor to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres for the SDGs. Sachs is a veteran of the 2000-2015 Millennium Development Goals, which likewise had a slow start [...]

America is falling far behind on key world goals

(CNN) The idea of sustainable development is that every nation (and local community) should aim for a triple bottom line: economic prosperity, social justice and environmental sustainability. However, many of our politicians have never warmed to the idea. The business of America, after all, is business, or so goes the dangerous view of the Washington lobbyists. [...]

The Sustainable Development Goals are slipping out of reach

For the first time, the SDSN was able to aggregate enough present and historical data to determine trends in how countries are grappling with each one of the SDGs. While countries like Sweden, Denmark, and Finland top the list with scores in the 80s (as they generally do each year, along with global happiness rankings–a correlation [...]

Trump’s Psychopathology Is Getting Worse

Jul 3, 2018 JEFFREY D. SACHS ,   BANDY X. LEE NEW YORK – Seemingly every day now, US President Donald Trump escalates his policy and personal attacks against other countries and their heads of state, the poor and the weak, and migrant families. Most recently, Trump has championed the heartless separation of migrant children from their parents. Though [...]

On ‘Laudato si’

ROME – … Through his work with the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Sachs was a critical player in helping craft Laudato si’, Francis’s 2015 encyclical calling for greater care for creation, and today he’s a leading champion of the document on the global stage. Sachs was recently in Rome for meetings of the Pontifical Academy and spoke [...]

Jeffrey Sachs is Upset

… Techonomy founder David Kirkpatrick sat down with Sachs in March 2018 in his New York apartment for a wide-ranging conversation about how tech could bolster progress towards the global goals for 2030, and the role of business. He is a scathing critic of those who do not take these goals seriously and is willing [...]

Energy for the common good

NEW YORK – The climate crisis we now face is a reflection of a broader crisis: a global confusion of means and ends. We continue to use fossil fuels because we can (means), not because they are good for us (ends). This confusion is why Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew are spurring us to [...]

Trump’s insane trade war

(CNN) Maybe Donald Trump really is the Manchurian Candidate, a stooge of some foreign potentate. Much more likely, Trump is just mentally unstable and narcissist. Whichever it is, Trump is rapidly destroying American global leadership, alliances, and interests. Wednesday’s announcement of new tariffs on steel and aluminum exports from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union is [...]

Europe Must Confront America’s Extraterritorial Sanctions

NEW YORK – Donald Trump’s renunciation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran and the reimposition of US sanctions on that country threaten global peace. Europe’s security depends on defending the agreement with Iran despite the US withdrawal. That, in turn, requires Europe, along with Russia, China, and other United Nations member [...]

Denuclearization Means the US, Too

NEW YORK – There are two types of foreign policy: one based on the principle “might makes right,” and one based on the international rule of law. The United States wants to have it both ways: to hold other countries accountable to international law while exempting itself. And nowhere is this truer than on the [...]