Posts Tagged ‘Sustainability’
Book: China’s new place in a world in crisis
Found this through our horizon scanning colleagues, a book by ANU on China’s new place in a world lurching from crisis to crisis. Makes me think of the unfinished conversations we are having on a China-centered Asia (ChiAsia) and the different flows and how the hell Singapore should be placed on these new flows. Anyway, here’s a brief grab on what the book is about:
The world and China’s place in it have been transformed over the past year. The pressures for change have come from the most severe global financial crisis ever. The crisis has accelerated China’s emergence as a great power. But China and its global partners have yet to think or work through the consequences of its new position for the governance of world affairs. China’s New Place in a World in Crisis discusses and provides in-depth analysis of the following questions. How have China’s growth prospects been affected by the global crisis? How will the crisis and China’s response to it impact China’s major domestic issues, such as industrialisation, urbanisation and the reform of the state-owned sector of the economy? How will the crisis and the international community’s response to it affect the rapidly emerging new international order? What will be China’s, and other major developing countries’, new role? Can China and the world find a way of breaking the nexus between economic growth and environmental sustainability — especially on the issue of climate change?
You can download the entire book here.
Peak Minerals and Urban mining
From WL our colleague, a look into what are the possibilities open when peak minerals (like peak oil) occur, and how recycling is both an environmental and economic win-win for all. We’ve previously blogged on peak minerals here.
Shai Agassi’s bold plan: TED videos
Where do you start to wean yourself from oil? Here’s Shai Agassi and Better Place, building an electric car battery charging infrastructure to support the transition.
Willie Smits restores a rainforest | Video on TED.com
Wow, this is what I want to see for BOP. A case study on how to viably create rural wealth, especially in devastated areas. By piecing together a complex ecological puzzle, biologist Willie Smits has found a way to re-grow clearcut rainforest in Borneo, saving local orangutans — and creating a thrilling blueprint for restoring fragile ecosystems. Original TED link here.
How would we be able to scale this up? I remember one line of inquiry I put aside, on ecosystem services to restore natural wealth in a profitable people centered way. Looks like this is a signal to relook again.
Reimagining Cities: Urban Design after the age of Oil
Jason just found out about this conference organised by U Penn on how cities can be conceived, adapted, designed, developed, and managed in a post-carbon world. It is targeted at urban designers. This conference in one way answers our question on what SGP the city and SGP the country might have to look like in a F.E.W-constrained world. Well, the conference is closed for registration but we are trying. At least it will be online on americancity.org 
and if it’s solid stuff, we’ll be there for the next round with reinforcements.
Cheeseburger Carbon Footprint
Jamais Cacio (Open the Future) wrote about the reality of carbon footprint in everyday applications; something as common as a cheeseburger. It hits home on the green issues that the world is grappling with.
Brookings Top Ten Global Economic Challenges facing America’s 44th President
The Brookings Institution articulated in a recent report the need for America’s next President to exhibit clear leadership on 10 main economic challenges.
These are:
1. Restoring Financial Stability
With U.S. financial troubles at the center of the current global vortex, the U.S. has important obligations to strengthen the global financial system, including by enhancing financial regulation and diminishing reliance on foreign credit.
2. Setting the Right Green Agenda
For the U.S., it is time to muster the political will to act on climate change at the national level while also working to forge international agreement so that markets and regulatory policy will provide a consistent set of incentives to wean the economy from carbon foundations.
3. Exercising Smart Power
Investing in the education, health, livelihoods, and the security of the world’s poorest not only makes Americans feel good about themselves but also makes the world feel good about America. It is critical to increase not only resources but also the impact of each dollar spent.
4. Reimagining Global Trade
Americans feel most secure about global engagement when they are well equipped to compete and have insurance against economic risks. This requires vigorously enforcing the trade rules and investing in economic competitiveness.
5. Navigating China’s Rise
On issues such as climate change, enforcement of trade rules and exchange rate adjustment, where the stakes are simply too high to ignore, America should look for cooperative mechanisms to advance its goals where possible but continue to press bilaterally with China and better deploy regional and international mechanisms where necessary.
6. Deciphering “Russia, Inc.”
Difficult as it may be to accomplish, America nonetheless has significant interests in alternately coaxing and goading a resurgent, resource nationalist Russia toward international norms and cooperation on energy, trade, financial integration and security more broadly.
7. Engaging an Emerging India
America has enormous interests in India’s successful integration into the global economy as the world’s most populous democracy engages in the task of lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty. America must look for areas of cooperation where possible and deepen bilateral engagement broadly in order to make progress on its agenda.
8. Revitalizing Ties to Latin America
America must become a stronger partner to its neighbors and engage on issues of mutual concern, including on energy, environmental protection, economic competitiveness and social policies.
9. Supporting Africa’s Growth Turnaround
America can become a stronger and steadier partner to Africa as it navigates economic challenges by supporting global standards for natural resource management, opening markets to African products, supporting vibrant private enterprises, supporting African efforts to enhance regional security and build resilience to climate change, and both increasing and improving the quality of development assistance.
10. Pursuing a Positive Agenda for the Middle East
America can build partnerships in the Middle East based on trust and mutual respect if it aligns its agenda on economic and political reform with the aspirations of the majority of the region’s people: the young who are striving for opportunity and global integration.
