Bjorn Lomborg

Paris is not the solution

Bjorn Lomborg | Friday 16 June 2017
President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the US from the Paris climate agreement leaves the US without a global warming policy. That is alarming. But the world’s response — to double down on the pact in opposition to Trump — should also cause...
Changing the narrative about Haiti

Bjorn Lomborg | Tuesday 30 May 2017
Prioritizing spending alternatives is difficult in every country. But it is especially challenging in Haiti, where, following years of fractious politics, a newly elected government is striving to expand the economy and improve wellbeing while...
The low cost of ending poverty

Bjorn Lomborg | Friday 21 April 2017
Poverty is humanity’s cruelest affliction. If you are extremely poor, you cannot afford to avoid even the easily curable diseases that cause every sixth human death. Your lungs are likely to be filled with indoor air pollution, because, like 2.7...
Using data to find the middle ground

Bjorn Lomborg | Saturday 25 March 2017
A sad reality of this hyper-partisan, politicized era is that many policy proposals are immediately identified as either “left-wing” or “right-wing” and lauded and derided by partisans as if by rote, with little room for discussion about...
Learning from Bill Gates

Bjorn Lomborg | Wednesday 15 February 2017
Everyone, from elected officials and bureaucrats to voters and taxpayers, can learn from the world’s largest charitable foundation about effective development spending. These lessons are particularly relevant at a time when 56 percent of...
Was 2016 the best year ever?

Bjorn Lomborg | Wednesday 28 December 2016
According to popular wisdom, 2016 was a terrible year. Horrific terror attacks struck many countries. The Syrian crisis claimed tens of thousands of lives. Turkey withstood suicide bombings and a failed coup. More than 70 countries experienced a...
How to feed the world

Bjorn Lomborg | Friday 25 November 2016
Hunger has wracked humanity since time immemorial. Nearly every major society has been shaped by famine; one estimate suggests that China suffered drought or flood-induced starvation in at least one province almost every year from 108CE to 1911. Yet...
The free-trade miracle

Bjorn Lomborg | Monday 24 October 2016
Global free trade provides the greatest opportunity to improve human welfare over the next decade and a half. It has already helped lift more than a billion people out of poverty over the past quarter-century. Lowering trade barriers even more could...
Setting national priorities right

Bjorn Lomborg | Sunday 19 June 2016
Every day, policymakers around the world face a dizzying array of choices. The more they spend on, say, education, the less there is to run hospitals, fight pollution, or boost agricultural productivity. Lobby groups, activists, and the media...
Evidence on education reforms

Bjorn Lomborg | Wednesday 18 May 2016
It is almost universally agreed that more education is good for society. But it turns out that some popular educational policies achieve very little, while others that are often overlooked can make a huge difference.Reducing class sizes would seem...