Tag Archives: international development
Cities of the Past, Cities of the Future (By Michael Belinsky)
Why do cities exist? One theory holds that cities are more productive than less dense and smaller concentrations of people. The source of this productivity may result because urban concentration reduces transportation costs for goods and people. Or because proximity increases the flow of ideas. More people, more diversity, and a higher concentration means that […]
Evergreen Jobs: Sustainable Employment in Sustainable Sectors (By Michael Belinsky)
The creation of “green jobs” is a way to kill several birds with one stone – employment, energy, and the environment. Rio+20 certainly has the potential to further the dialogue around the creation of green jobs. For one, government regulation is a significant driver of green job creation. I saw this directly when working in […]
Rio+20 Is Around the Corner…And Everyone Needs To Do More
Rio+20 is coming up next week, and frankly, it’s not receiving nearly enough attention from Western policymakers. Today, Timothy E. Wirth, President of the Better World Fund and the United Nations Foundation and a member of the Secretary-General’s High-level Group on Sustainable Energy for All, wrote in the Huffington Post that “United Nations Secretary-General Ban […]
A “Brief” Focus on Disaster Management (By Michael Belinsky)
In a little over two weeks, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, nicknamed Rio+20 for its location and timing, will kick off in Brazil. The Conference will cover a green economy in the context of sustainable development poverty eradication, and the institutional framework for sustainable development. These two themes will contain sub-themes of “jobs, energy, […]
The Learning Curve: Can Brazil Compete in Renewable Research and Development? (By Eric Lonstein and Todd Wintner)
This is part three of a three-part series. For more, please refer to part one and part two. Besides building an industry through subsidization, another way to promote domestic growth in renewable energy is through R&D. Up to this point, leading R&D has not been a part of the Brazilian growth story. Even with domestic […]
Why Alternative Renewables: Is Solar a Pipedream? (By Eric Lonstein and Todd Wintner)
This is part two of a three-part series. To read part one, please click here. Perhaps a better question for understanding renewable energy development in Brazil — and particularly the future role of solar energy — is not the “how” but rather the “why” of this industrial policy. Why did a country with vast untapped, […]
Food Security and Social Justice (by Imran Sarwar)
An image of a grain of wheat will have, at times, symbolic, even spiritual connotations. Food grains often find their way into national emblems of countries – Pakistan’s state emblem contains images of wheat, tea, jute and cotton, while Indonesia’s coat of arms depicts rice and cotton as symbols of the principle of social justice […]
Harvard Students Talk Rio+20 